New turbid dataset from "Quantifying the degradation of optical algorithms in increasingly turbid mediums"

We’ve just posted two datasets from our Oceans 2021 paper.

Summer Interns Report: BlueROV Team: Autonomous Position Tracking With Commercial ROVs

A report from our summer intern team working on autonomous, vision-based tracking using a pair of BlueROV robots.

Sample Stereolabs Zed2 imagery at short ranges

All data taken with our Stereolabs Zed 2 through SDK version 3.3.1

Here is sample stereo data at 2k with the target at 20cm:

Note there’s pretty good coverage over the flat plane of the target. As shown on the right, the paper is reconstructed as a plane, the tape measure to the right of the paper is also correctly reconstructed at a greater distance (not obvious from the image, but the range to the tape measure is approx correct).

MaSCOT Project Final Report

I’ve posted my final report for the MaSCOT project.

More Power!

I haven’t discussed the results from initial MaSCOT testing in great detail — though some sample data has been posted.

One of the big take-aways for me was that two BlueRobotics Lumen R1 lights is simply not enough. Unfortunately, only two lights fit within the power budget dictated by my PoE system.

So, we went ahead and re-engineered the power system, purchased a new tether which includes both gigabit and power conductors, and purchased four more BlueRobotics lights. The rest of the system is still being assembled, but I daisy-chained the lights and did a first successful in-air test (with PWM control) today.

See also part 1, part 2 and part 3

I designed the board in Eagle, design files are on GitHub.

{:.center} (click image for PDF version)

The board is very straightforward. Lots of 0.1" header for connecting to the Jetson dev board and then breaking those pins out to pads. A TI MSP430FR2311 in a 20-pin TSSOP is the brains of the operation. I purchaed a MSP-FET just to have one around, and used the standard “full” 14-pin pinout using Spy-Bi-Wire for communications. The MSP-FET can power the companion board for testing (selected by JP9). The power and reset lines are grounded by 2N7002 FETs.

MaSCOT on Github

I’ve stared migrating my MaSCOT design files to Github:

TL;DR: I ended up needing to to design a micro-based “companion board” which handles power-on, watchdogging, out of band comms, and LED light control for the Jetson. The details can be found on GitHub.

See also part 1 and part 2

A primary concern for me was ensuring the system was as usable as possible while inside the housing. Opening and closing the housing is time-consuming and somewhat risky in terms of getting a repeatable seal. Unfortunately, the ethernet-only architecture severely limited my options for out-of-band communications to the system. That is, if the Jetons failed to boot, there would be no ethernet, and I’d be hosed.

Sample MaSCOT Data

Oct 27, 2016: I’ve moved the contents of this page to a more permanent location

{:.center} Left sample image

MaSCOT Report, Part 2: Mechanical Design

As described in part 1, the prototype system architecture is:

{:.center} System block diagram

The mechanical design was the one element I did not handle myself. I worked with a mechanical engineer at APL to design an inexpensive, easy to machine shallow water housing with enough space for the Zed and Jetson. The final design consists of a single 12" x 12" block of Delrin with a single cavity hogged through it. The front and back faces have o-ring seals and tapped holes for retaining bolts for the endplates, and a series of top-to-bottom through-holes along the sides provide mounting points.