Kochi: Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) has bagged a prestigious Union government project for underwater image enhancement and object detection which is useful in tracking fissures in pipelines, cables and vessels.
Naval Research Board, Govt of India, funds the project titled ‘Algorithms for Underwater Image Enhancement, Object Detection and Cable Tracking’, executed in the Advanced Signal Processing and Instrumentation Research Lab (ASPIRE) of its department of electronics under the guidance of principal investigator Dr Supriya M.H., professor and the HoD.
NRB has granted Rs 30.65 lakh for the project. The co-investigator of the project will be assistant professor Arun. A. Balakrishnan.
“The underwater pipeline and cables need constant maintenance and monitoring. Likewise, unmanned underwater vehicles need sophisticated image processing capabilities that must be efficient as well as robust. The project deals with the image enhancement of deep-sea underwater pipelines, cables and seafloor textures, through the use of cutting-edge algorithms. The project will try to deal with many challenges in dealing with images procured from the deep-sea area, where the visibility conditions are poor, and colour and contrast conditions deprived,” said Dr Supriya.
“The image contrast enhancement, which is a method used to increase the visibility of images, can be performed using feature-based or intensity based methods. Underwater pipelines and cables need to be constantly monitored to identify the damage caused to them due to earthquakes and other environmental changes. The constant monitoring of these pipelines and cables can be really helpful in avoiding devastating events like oil spills and gas leakages.”
“Communication cables placed underwater need to be constantly monitored for avoiding breaks in information flow. To accomplish this, an intelligent vision-based navigation and guidance system needs to be developed, which involves efficient methods for vision based target detection as well as tracking in an underwater environment. With the development of cutting-edge algorithms, systems can be designed with robust analytic capabilities,” she added.
