Submap bathymetric SLAM using structured light in underwater environments

Abstract

This article presents a bathymetric SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) solution for underwater vehicles by addressing the registration of point clouds gathered from single line laser-based structured light systems. While structured light can be applied to generate millimetre resolution seafloor bathymetry, the accuracy of the maps generated is typically constrained by the localization accuracy of the vehicles used. In this work, relative uncertainties in vehicle localisation are reduced by implementing bathymetric SLAM using temporally constrained submaps. We demonstrate that the method described can overcome misalignments by correcting errors in localisation and can be used to generate self-consistent high-resolution seafloor bathymetric maps.