Integrated Optical Imaging of the Environment on Underwater Autonomous Vehicles

Areté and the University of Washington are developing an Autonomous Quantitative Imaging System (AQuIS) to measure small-scale velocities and for particle detection and classification in the ocean. AQuIS uses an embedded processor to acquire and process images and image sequences in multiple fields of view and extract information on object location and size over time. It is intended for use on a variety of long endurance oceanographic platforms like Argo floats, vertical profilers, and autonomous underwater vehicles. AQuIS builds off of advances in digital image sensor performance, a variety of scientific image acquisition and processing techniques, and the increasing performance of embedded processors to create a low-size, weight, and power underwater imaging system for the Navy. AQuIS is intended to expand oceanographic monitoring capabilities by providing data on small-scale processes in the millimeter to meter range which is typically only collected during directed field campaigns, building long-term datasets suitable for a variety of oceanographic programs.