Optical imaging study of underwater acousto-optical fusion imaging systems

Existing ocean visualization studies are usually conducted independently using either sonar or optical imaging. However, the two methods have their own shortcomings in different engineering applications. Acoustic imaging is not comprehensive enough to show the details of the target, and the perspective of optical imaging is not extensive enough. Combining the advantages of optics and acoustics, this paper proposes a joint imaging method with acoustic communication-assisted decision-making and optical image stitching, aiming to improve information acquisition efficiency in the ocean visualization process. The joint imaging method relies on sonar technology as the decision-making layer to obtain the position information, then it sends instructions to AUV by acoustic communication and get the details of the target by the AUV-mounted camera which forms the executive layer. Finally, it conducts smoothing and mosaic processing on the optical image. The system can efficiently obtain complete, comprehensive, and detailed ocean visualization information through the advantages of agility of acoustic and accuracy of optics.