Development of an altitude maintenance system for underwater robots using laser beams

Taba, Ryo*; Takemura, Fumiaki*; Tansuriyavong, S.*; Kawabata, Kuniaki   ; Sagara, Shinichi*; Ogasawara, Kei*

In this paper, we describe about the development of real time distance measurement system for underwater robot. This system has two laser modules and a monocular camera. Two laser modules set on the monocular camera and two points always see in the camera image. If the distance of camera and the measurement object is near, the distance of two laser points is long. If the distance of camera and measurement object is far, the distance of two laser points is short. By using this relation, the distance of the robot and the measurement object can measure. In addition, this system uses particle filter to be not affected by light. We verify this method by the several experimental results.