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SoundTiles

SoundTiles customer experience: oQuay (NL)

“The way we inspect (video mapping and imaging sonar) is quite unique in the Netherlands. The use of imaging sonar is a basic necessity for our company. Without it, we have no right to exist. In addition, we can translate the data into information that the owner can use. The combination of high quality data and thorough advice distinguishes us.” says Peter Nieuwenhuizen, CEO at oQuay

oQuay was founded in 2009 in the Netherlands. They work in environments where the water is often turbid and there is little or nothing to see in the video images. The company looked for an alternative technology to help their clients in these difficult conditions and finally ended up choosing imaging sonar technologies, specifically, the ARIS Sound Metrics sonar, which they operate from an ROV.

“We mainly inspect quay walls and bank constructions. This year we have seen an increase in the number of inspections between shore and ship. Often, this is not inspected because temporarily moving a boat is a lot of hassle or the inspection is too dangerous for divers. With our ROV we can easily maneuver in between and still perform the inspection.”

Their team is composed of four people, including: a ROV pilot, a team member specialized in processing the data and two more employees devoted to understanding the quay constructions, assess the content of the data and give advice on repairs to be carried out to the end customer.

The company recently acquired SoundTiles, an IQUA robotics stand-alone software solution for automatic generation of underwater acoustic mosaics from forward-looking sonar images. The software allows to process a set of sonar images in one single informative mosaic, easing the interpretation of the imaged scene, allowing the identification of spatial relationships and offering a map of increased resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with respect to the individual sonar images.

“SoundTiles helps us now to get panoramic pictures that help us to better interpret the situation below the waterline. You have more overview. We manage quite well to make the mosaics ourselves, making about 1 mosaic per week; the mosaics definitely have an added value to be able to see underwater.”

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Products Sparus II

The SPARUS II AUV AFANC starts its journey

Last November we successfully delivered the SPARUS II AUV of the Intelligent Robotics Group at Aberystwyth University, one of the largest and best-known robotics research groups in the UK. Within Aberystwyth Computer Science they have a portfolio of autonomous vehicles, both land- and sea- based. These range from autonomous truck-like vehicles, through amphibious vehicles to sailing robots. The recent purchase of a SPARUS II has been their first venture into the underwater domain. They have named it Afanc, beaver in Welsh language, after a mythical lake monster.

Their unit is fully equipped with the Teledyne RDI Explorer DVL, an Evologics modem with USBL, the Imagenex Blackfin side scan sonar and a high sensitivity camera system with its lightning system developed by IQUA that they plan to use for underwater mapping and modelling of seafloor structures and plants.

Due to COVID situation, the on-site training for the team has not yet been possible but a series of online sessions and tutorial videos will help the team with the first steps with the AUV. We expect to see their first results in the near future, as soon as the situation is stabilized in the UK.

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Announcements SoundTiles

NEW PRODUCT: SoundTiles, obtain your FLS maps in a matter of minutes

We are pleased to announce the launching of SoundTiles, a stand-alone software solution for automatic generation of underwater acoustic mosaics from forward-looking sonar (FLS) images.

The software allows to process a set of sonar images, finding the correct alignment between them and blending them in one single informative mosaic. The generated mosaic provides an overview of the surveyed area and eases the interpretation of the imaged scene, allowing the identification of spatial relationships and offering a map of increased resolution and improved signal-to-noise ratio with respect to the individual sonar images.

SoundTiles is a very intuitive and easy-to-use software, designed for end users that allow process FLS images in a matter of minutes, make annotations and measurements, and export the data in different formats. With SoundTiles the generation of FLS maps becomes a straightforward task, reducing drastically the amount of work and improving the quality of the results.

SoundTiles is currently compatible with Soundmetrics and Norbit and will soon be compatible with Teledyne Blueview, Teledyne Reson and Blueprint forward looking sonars. It can run in Windows 10 or Linux Ubuntu operating systems. The software has an in-build wizard that guides the user in the basic processing steps. It features also a set of more advanced tools for mosaic optimization, offering options for fine-tuning in order to achieve the best performance.

Image illustrating the post courtesy of Acquest Geofísica (Brazil).

This project has received funding from the European Commission under the H2020 SME instrument program.

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Products Sparus II

SPARUS II AUV proves to be a very good option for equipment integration

National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is the United Kingdom’s centre of excellence for oceanographic sciences. Back in 2018, NOC team chose IQUA’s SPARUS II platform to become a test bed for new developments that may be later transferred to other vehicles in their fleet. The team picked this AUV for its versatility, its ROS driven software and its possibilities for sensors integration.

In this case, NOC team has closely worked with Sonardyne, a global provider of underwater acoustic, inertial, optical and sonar technology.  As part of the launch activities for SPRINT-Nav Mini Sonardyne installed its 300 m-rated SPRINT-Nav Mini into IQUA robotics’ 9” SPARUS II AUV, which was on loan to Sonardyne from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The SPRINT-Nav Mini is the world’s smallest hybrid acoustic-inertial navigator, combining DVL, inertial and depth in a single all-in-one solution ideally suited for smaller subsea vehicles.

The vehicle is used as an embedded development test bed by the NOC and is permanently equipped with a Sonardyne AvTrak 6 OEM Nano, which is housed inside the main SPARUS II payload hull. The AvTrak 6 OEM Nano allows the NOC to efficiently and simultaneously track, send position updates and exchange data with the SPARUS II vehicle, using a Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine Positioning system and Sonardyne’s Marine Robotics pack. 

The team at NOC regularly works with Sonardyne and IQUA to integrate systems into the robot operating system (ROS) architecture that is being rolled out across its fleet of AUVs. This has recently involved the integration of SPRINT-Nav, AvTrak 6 and a NORBIT WBMS-FLS into their vehicle control system.

Post developed in collaboration with National Oceanographic Centre and Sonardyne International.

Images courtesy of: Sonardyne International.

If you wish to use the article images you must quote ©Sonardyne International. Thank you.

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Girona 500 Products

1 mission = 11 dives, GEOMAR’s GIRONA500 AUVs explore Southern Italy volcanoes

One of the current users of our vehicles is GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a world-wide leading institute of marine research based in Kiel (Germany). GEOMAR incorporated two Girona 500 vehicles to its high-performance infrastructure in underwater robotics, to be used in different research fields related to marine sciences. 

Recently, the team did an expedition to the Aeolian Islands, a volcanological active area of special interest for the geoscientists located in the Tyrrhenian sea (southern west Italy). The German research ship FS ALKOR was used to test the two Girona 500 vehicles (ANTON and LUISE) along with the submersible JAGO in investigations around the Vulcano and Stromboli volcanoes.

The goal of the mission was to study an analyze the possibilities of cooperation between vehicles in different terrains, from flat areas to rocky slopes. The scenario was ideal to test the lighting system developed by GEOMAR and integrated in the payload area of the LUISE AUV. In total, 11 dives where performed with JAGO, ANTON and LUISE.

The payload that has been developed by GEOMAR AUV team for LUISE AUV is a camera system CoraMo Mark 2 and it contains an IDS machine vision camera with 12 MP. The team has also developed a forward-looking version prepared for a mid water ecology project to photograph animals in the water column.

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Announcements Products Sparus II

First scientific results of KAIST team with its SPARUS II AUV

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), based in Daejeon (Korea), has chosen SPARUS II AUV to be its research platform.   

The Intelligent Robotic Autonomy and Perception (IRAP) Lab at KAIST, leaded by Dr. Ayoung Kim, focuses on robotics problems in civil and environmental engineering applications.  Their main research interest and topics include perception-based environment mapping, intelligent sensor fusion, decision making and control of the robotic agents, robotic operation and navigation in GPS-denied environments (e.g., underwater, indoor).

KAIST team chose SPARUS II to be their first platform to start with autonomous underwater robotics for its open approach (ROS driven and reconfigurable hardware).  Their current work consist on the integration of a Teledyne Blueview M-900 in the AUV payload area for the obtention of underwater acoustic images with the goal of the detecting objects in the seafloor. In the integration process, KAIST researchers collaborated with Prof. Lee (Kongju University), Dr. Park (ETRI) and Korean Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO).  

The Teledyne Blueview M-900 is a multibeam imaging sonar which is very compact, and allows an easy integration in SPARUS II payload area. 

Our customer’s opinion: “The Sparus II is a very research-friendly platform, perfect for robotics students to get used to underwater robots. Integration and data collection were smooth due to the flexibility of the platform.”  

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Announcements Products Sparus II

IQUA robotics develops a dedicated payload for SPARUS II integrating NORBIT WBMS-FLS

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the United Kingdom’s centre of excellence for oceanographic sciences, works with SPARUS II as one of their software-testing platforms. 

One of the main features of IQUA’s platforms is that they have an open conception, both in terms of hardware (reconfigurable) and software (using ROS operating system). These characteristics brought the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems team at NOC to acquire a SPARUS II platform to be used as a testing platform for their software. 

In the last months, the team of engineers at IQUA has developed a tailor-made payload for NOC’s SPARUS II, integrating the NORBIT WMS-FLS according to the customer’s needs. This forward looking sonar will be used by Autosubs in challenging applications such as under-ice missions. SPARUS II will be used as a software-testing platform for the testing the algorithms and deciding the best sensor configurations and control strategies.  

NOC undertakes world leading research in large scale oceanography and ocean measurement technology innovation. They work with Government and business to turn great science and technology into advice and applications. The NOC supports the UK science community based in universities and smaller research institutes with scientific facilities, research infrastructure and irreplaceable data assets – enabling the UK to harness the full power and diversity of its scientific talent in ocean science. 

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Girona 500

IQUA vehicles being used by reference research centres in Europe

Girona 500 and Sparus II are autonomous hovering vehicles that can be adapted by the end-user to a wide range of applications. This feature, together with their low weight, low requirements for its operation at sea and the added value of using ROS, convert them in a very interesting base platform for research centres that want to develop their own technology. 

One of the current users of our vehicles is GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a world-wide leading institute of marine research based in Kiel (Germany). GEOMAR incorporated Girona 500 to its high-performance infrastructure in underwater robotics, to be used in different research fields related to marine sciences. 

According to the research institute, “ANTON (Geomar’s Girona 500) is extremely useful for surveys in many marine areas because it is small and handy and can be deployed from small vessels”. 

ANTON had its first assignment on the POSEIDON expedition POS526, which ran from late July to mid-August to working areas in the central North Sea and off the coast of Norway. The expedition included the manned research diving boat JAGO, among others, to observe ANTON during his firsts dive trials. ANTON did ten dives where extensive seabed datasets were collected, including CTD measures. Also, images of the seabed were acquired and they will be used for scientific studies and further technology development.

From beginning of 2019, Geomar’s fleet has a new member, LUISE, a second Girona 500 that will work with ANTON in the framework of the MOSES infrastructure, leaded by the institute.

Girona 500 and Sparus II were originally developed in the framework of different research projects at the University of Girona with the main goal of being flexible in terms of configuration, software and equipment integration. 

Since they became commercial AUVs, the vehicles have increased their capabilities and robustness, becoming an alternative to other vehicles in the market.

Source

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Events Products

IQUA Robotics in the underwater ROS community

The vehicles from Iqua Robotics have at its core an open software architecture based on the robot operating system (ROS), named component oriented layer-based architecture for autonomy (COLA2). The use of a ROS-based software architecture is particularly advantageous from a developer perspective and it simplifies the creation and the addition of new components, thus enabling to easily tailor the vehicle to the user needs. Moreover, ROS is open source and it benefits from a large user community, which is also growing in the underwater domain.

At the beginning of October, Iqua Robotics co-organized with the University of Girona a workshop entitled  “Adoption of Conventions in the Underwater ROS Community” as part of the Breaking The Surface (BTS) 2018 conference held in Croatia. The workshop brought together almost 30 attendants from 16 different companies and organizations, mostly from Europe, that are currently using ROS – or plan to use it in the near future- in an underwater application.The participants had the opportunity to share which is their particular use of ROS and interchange opinions and experiences regarding problems and features that are missed. This served as a starting point for a discussion focused mainly on the standardization of low-level messages that are specific to the marine environment, as well as on the need for simulators and other tools. 

At the end of October, the outcomes of the BTS workshop were presented inside another workshop organized at Woods Hole by WHOI and Houston Mechatronics under the name of “Creating a Thriving Underwater ROS Community“. This workshop, of similar philosophy, was organized to spur the growth towards a ROS ecosystem for underwater robotics and encourage collaboration between members of the underwater ROS community around the globe. 

Categories
Announcements Products Sparus II

IQUA Robotics delivers a SPARUS II AUV to the Department of Marine Technologies, Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences (University of Haifa)

SPARUS II AUV HAIFA

IQUA Robotics started its journey as a University of Girona start up back in October 2016, after 10 years of applied research on marine robotics and applications at CIRS – Underwater Vision and Robotics Lab. On July 2017, the company delivered its first unit of SPARUS II AUV to its final customer, the Department of Marine Technologies, Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa.

 

The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences is a unique initiative on a global scale, applying an interdisciplinary approach with highly professional standards. The school has four complementary divisions: Department of Maritime Civilizations, Dr. Strauss Department of Marine Geosciences, Department of Marine Biology and Hatter Department of Marine Technologies.

 

The centre chose SPARUS II AUV for its “small size and easy of deployment, its dedicated payload area and its open source code”. Other assets that made the team decide its purchase were: “the ability to reconfigure the system, its hovering capabilities, as well as its competitive price”. Another value added for the decision making process was that “the SPARUS II AUV, being designed by a university lab, would promote academic collaboration”.

 

According to the research team, the robot will be used in two main domains: “we are going to use it for research on novel technologies: underwater image enhancement and color reconstruction, underwater high resolution photographic 3D mapping, propulsion, maneuvering, navigation and control and, secondly, it will be used to map important reef ecosystems in the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean, as well as wrecks.”

You can see University of Haifa SPARUS II AUV in action here

Picture by: H. Nativ – The Morris Kahn Marine Research Centre