Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Underwater navigation and localization is used by autonomous underwater vehicles to find objects on the seabed (e.g.., mines, sunken wrecks, downed aircraft).  Underwater is a difficult environment to operate, sense, and localize in.  The latter is especially true since underwater robots cannot access the Global Position System for position, navigation and timing.   A method that has been emerging over the last decade is to assist navigation systems is to use underwater environment features like bathymetry (underwater topography) and gravitational and magnetic fields. Given the underwater environment is harsh and the sensors are limited, the challenge is to identify environment features that are distinctive enough that they are navigation grade.   The research here attempts to find a way to identify then evaluate how distinctive the detected environmental features are.  Traditional methods are used and novel methods are proposed and pursued.  Machine learning will be applied to labelled bathymetric measurements to see if it is possible to obtain an classifier that quantitatively describes how distinctive environment features are. As well, saliency detection models will be created for bathymetry and gravitational and magnetic fields. Finally, these capabilities will be deployed on autonomous underwater vehicles for in-water verification. The desired outcome is a method to evaluate whether environment features are distinctive enough to be landmarks and if so, how distinctive are they.  The outcome of this work is extended ranges that underwater navigation and localization can be performed over with acceptable accuracy.  The best use case for the methods developed is to autonomously map the bathymetry under-ice in the Canadian Arctic as only 20% is mapped.  Mapping the underwater / under-ice portions of the Arctic is a goal for Canada.  The techniques developed will also contribute to the commercial sector for offshore wind farms and oil rigs.  The methodologies will benefit Canada's ocean sector on multiple fronts.