Abstract
We propose a direct solution for real-time estimation of the 3D motion of a submersible vehicle from the video images of the sea floor, acquired by an onboard camera, in order to perform the following tasks: Maintaining a prescribed trajectory, or determining position relative to a reference point, during short-range navigation along the sea floor. Constructing a mosaic image of the bottom scene within the scanned area by registering consecutive frames. We present experimental results with images recorded in a water tank to evaluate performance based on accuracy in the estimation of 3D motion and the registration of consecutive frames in the mosaic image.