ROV-Hovering

With the aid of camera-based virtual servoing and merging of values from one or several 6D Inertial systems and a sonar, the project aims at enabling the DFKI-LBV150B2 ROV to hover in front of an underwater structure.

This means that the operator will place the LBV in front of an underwater structure by hand and subsequently activate the hover control. As a result, the LBV remains hovering in front of the structure at the distance and orientation determined by its original position. Disturbances caused by external influences such as currents or movement of the structure will be compensated autonomously. Furthermore, by using the hover control the operator may change the position of the ROV through renewed control commands.

The LBV-camera which is connected to a computer system that evaluates images and transmits control commands to the LBV thruster will be the principal sensor for the detection of disturbances. In addition, in a second step the data of one or several inertial systems, resp., and a sonar for distance reading will be merged in order to stabilize the reaction. Furthermore, auto-heading and auto-depth functions of the LBV will be used at the beginning of the job. In the event that the resolution of the internal camera should not suffice to place the necessary data at the disposal of the visual servoing algorithms, one of the high-resolution cameras of the CManipulator project may be used.