Small Bottom Object Density Analysis from Side Scan Sonar Data by a Mathematical Morphology Detector

Abstract

This paper describes a system for estimating the local density of small objects on the sea floor by exploiting a robust, non-parametric detector for high resolution images acquired by side scan sonar sensors. Low grazing angle target images are characterised by an area of strong intensity, the highlight, close to an area, the shadow, at the sensor noise level. The detector makes use of mathematical morphology to detect the highlight and the shadow areas within the image, and a fusion scheme to reduce the false alarms due to the sea floor disturbance by declaring a target acquired if an highlight is close to a shadow. Results on data sets collected in the Ligurian and Baltic Sea are reported and discussed.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA521694

Entities

People

  • F. Spina
  • R. Grasso

Organizations

  • Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
  • Baltic Sea
  • Data Sets
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • False Alarms
  • Geometry
  • Grazing Angles
  • Ligurian Sea
  • Seabed
  • Side Looking Sonar
  • Slant Range
  • Sonar
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional
  • Warning Systems
  • World Geodetic System

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Oceanography.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.