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The observation of the sea through remote sensing technologies plays a fundamentalan role in understanding the state of health of marine fauna species and their behaviour. Mesoscale phenomena, such as upwelling, countercurrents, and filaments, are essential processes to be analysed because their occurrence involves, among other things, variations in the density of nutrients, which, in turn, influence the biological parameters of the habitat. Indeed, there is a connection between the biogeochemical and physical processes that occur within a biological system and the variations observed in its faunal populations. This paper concerns the proposal of an automatic classification system, namely the Mesoscale Events Classifier, dedicated to the recognition of marine mesoscale events. The proposed system is devoted to the study of these phenomena through the analysis of sea surface temperature images captured by satellite missions, such as EUMETSAT’s Metop and NASA’s Earth Observing System programmes. The classification of these images is obtained through (i) a preprocessing stage with the goal to provide a simultaneous representation of the spatial and temporal properties of the data and enhance the salient features of the sought phenomena, (ii) the extraction of temporal and spatial characteristics from the data and, finally, (iii) the application of a set of rules to discriminate between different observed scenarios. The results presented in this work were obtained by applying the proposed approach to images acquired in the southwestern region of the Iberian peninsula. LA/P/0069/2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Sea observation through remote sensing technologies plays an essential role in understanding the health status of marine fauna species and their future behaviour. Accurate knowledge of the marine habitat and the factors affecting faunal variations allows to perform predictions and adopt proper decisions. This is even more relevant nowadays, with policymakers needing increased environmental awareness, aiming to implement sustainable policies. There is a connection between the biogeochemical and physical processes taking place within a biological system and the variations observed in its faunal populations. Mesoscale phenomena, such as upwelling, countercurrents and filaments, are essential processes to analyse because their arousal entails, among other things, variations in the density of nutrient substances, in turn affecting the biological parameters of the habitat. This paper concerns the proposal of a classification system devoted to recognising marine mesoscale events. These phenomena are studied and monitored by analysing Sea Surface Temperature images captured by satellite missions, such as Metop and MODIS Terra/Aqua. Classification of such images is pursued through dedicated algorithms that extract temporal and spatial features from the data and apply a set of rules to the extracted features, in order to discriminate between different observed scenarios. The results presented in this work have been obtained by applying the proposed approach to images captured over the south-western region of the Iberian Peninsula.

Surveying the oceans’ floors represents at the same time a demanding and relevant task to operators concerned with marine biology, engineering or sunken cultural heritage preservation. Scientific researchers and concerned persons combine their effort to pursue optimized solutions aiming at the mapping of underwater areas, the detection of interesting objects and, in case of archeological survey mission, the safeguard of the detected sites. Among the typical tools exploited to perform the cited operations the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) represent a validated and reliable technology. These vehicles are typically equipped with properly selected sensors that collect data from the surveyed environment. This data can be employed to detect and recognize targets of interest, such as manmade artifacts located on the seabed, both in an online or offline modality. The adopted approach consists in laying emphasis on the amount of regularity contained in the data, referring to the content of geometrical shapes or textural surface patterns. These features can be used to label the environment in terms of more or less interesting areas, where more interesting refers to higher chances of detecting the sought objects (such as man-made objects) in the surveyed area. This paper describes the methods developed to fulfill the purposes of mapping and object detection in the underwater scenario and presents some of the experimental results obtained by the implementation of the discussed techniques in the underwater archeology field.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe a software platform dedicated to sea surveillance, capable of detecting and identifying illegal maritime traffic. This platform results from the cascade pipeline of several image processing algorithms that input Radar or Optical imagery captured by satellite-borne sensors and try to identify vessel targets in the scene and provide quantitative descriptors about their shape and motion. This platform is innovative since it integrates in its architecture heterogeneous data and data processing solutions with the goal of identifying navigating vessels in a unique and completely automatic processing streamline. More in detail, the processing chain consists of: (i) the detection of target vessels in an input map, (ii) the estimation of each vessel&rsquo, s most descriptive geometrical and scatterometric (for radar images) features, (iii) the estimation of the kinematics of each vessel, (iv) the prediction of each vessel&rsquo, s forthcoming route, and (v) the visualization of the results in a dedicated webGIS interface. The resulting platform represents a novel tool to counteract unauthorized fishing and tackle irregular migration and the related smuggling activities.

The main objective of the work described here concerns the development of automatic ICT procedures in charge of processing imagery data captured by satellite-borne sensors to assess the status of a given maritime area. The mentioned assessment may refer to the detection and identification of peculiar objects, such as oil leaks or, in case of maritime traffic control, the recognition of navigating vessels. This paper specifically focuses on the development of methods for estimating the kinematics of a navigating vessel through the detection and analysis, in the 2D satellite imagery, of the corresponding wake pattern. The proposed method differentiates from those retrieved in previous literature for the introduction of a novel preprocessing stage, which allows for an enhancement in the overall performance of the wake detector. The resulting procedure represents a key functionality to be included in platforms dedicated to sea surveillance.

The work described in this document concerns the estimation of the kinematics of a navigating vessel. This task can be accomplished through the exploitation of satellite-borne systems for Earth observation. Indeed, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical sensors installed aboard satellites (European Space Agency Sentinel, ImageSat International Earth Remote Observation System, Italian Space Agency Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) return multi-resolution maps providing information about the marine surface. A moving ship represented through satellite imaging results in a bright oblong object, with a peculiar wake pattern generated by the ship&rsquo, s passage throughout the water. By employing specifically tailored computer vision methods, these vessel features can be identified and individually analyzed for what concerns geometrical and radiometric properties, backscatterers spatial distribution and the spectral content of the wake components. This paper proposes a method for the automatic detection of the vessel&rsquo, s motion-related features and their exploitation to provide an estimation of the vessel velocity vector. In particular, the ship&rsquo, s related wake pattern is considered as a crucial target of interest for the purposes mentioned. The corresponding wake detection module has been implemented adopting a novel approach, i.e., by introducing a specifically tailored gradient estimator in the early processing stages. This results in the enhancement of the turbulent wake detection performance. The resulting overall procedure may also be included in marine surveillance systems in charge of detecting illegal maritime traffic, combating unauthorized fishing, irregular migration and related smuggling activities.

The main purpose of the work described in this paper concerns the development of a platform dedicated to sea surveillance, capable of detecting and identifying illegal maritime traffic. This platform results from the cascade implementation of several image processing algorithms that take as input Radar or Optical maps captured by satellite-borne sensors. More in detail, the processing chain is dedicated to (i) the detection of vessel targets in the input map, (ii) the refined estimation of the vessel most descriptive geometrical features and, finally, (iii) the estimation of the kinematic status of the vessel. This platform will represent a new tool for combating unauthorized fishing, irregular migration and related smuggling activities.

Navigating vessels leave traces of their motion in the form of wake patterns on the water surface. Wakes are visible in high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar maps and bear information related to the kinematic variables of the vessel motion. A proper processing of the wake pattern allows to estimate the vessel heading and velocity. This information can be exploited in decision procedures concerning maritime surveillance and ship traffic monitoring. This document describes the design and implementation of software procedures with the purpose of estimating the motion parameters of a navigating vessel, through processing the wake pattern generated by the vessel itself.

Florence Heri-Tech 2018 - The Future of Heritage Science and Technologies; Florence; Italy; 16 May 2018 through 18 May 2018, The paper summarizes the main results achieved during the three-year European FP7 ARROWS project (ARchaeological RObot systems for the Worlds Seas). ARROWS concluded at the end of August 2015 and proposed to adapt and develop low-cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technologies to reduce the operational cost of typical underwater archaeological campaigns. The methodology used by ARROWS researchers identified archaeologists requirements for all the phases of a campaign. These were based on guidelines issued by the project Archaeology Advisory Group (AAG), which comprised of many European archaeologists belonging to the consortium. One of the main goals of the ARROWS project was the development of a heterogeneous team of cooperating AUVs; these comprised of prototypes developed in the project and commercially available vehicles. Three different AUVs have been built and tested at sea: MARTA, characterized by flexible hardware modularity for easy adaption of payload and propulsion systems, U-CAT, a turtle inspired bio-mimetic robot devoted to shipwreck penetration and A-Size AUV, a small light weight vehicle which is easily deployable by a single person. The project also included the development of a cleaning tool for well-known artefacts and maintenance operations. Results from the official final demonstrations of the project, held in Sicily and in Estonia during Summer 2015, are presented in the paper as an experimental proof of the validity of the developed robotic tools., European AR-ROWS project (European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research grant agreement no.308724)

4th IFAC Workshop on Navigation, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles, NGCUV 2015; Girona; Spain; 28 April 2015 through 30 April 2015, ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas (ARROWS) EU Project proposes to adapt and develop low-cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technologies to significantly reduce the cost of archaeological operations, covering the full extent of archaeological campaign. ARROWS methodology is to identify the archaeologists requirements in all phases of the campaign and to propose related technological solutions. Starting from the necessities identified by archaeological project partners in collaboration with the Archaeology Advisory Group, a board composed of European archaeologists from outside ARROWS, the aim is the development of a heterogeneous team of cooperating AUVs capable of comply with a complete archaeological autonomous mission. Three new different AUVs have been designed in the framework of the project according to the archaeologists' indications: MARTA, characterized by a strong hardware modularity for ease of payload and propulsion systems configuration change; U-C AT, a turtle inspired bio-mimetic robot devoted to shipwreck penetration and A-Size AUV, a vehicle of small dimensions and weight easily deployable even by a single person. These three vehicles will cooperate within the project with AUVs already owned by ARROWS partners exploiting a distributed high-level control software based on the World Model Service (WMS), a storage system for the environment knowledge, updated in real-time through online payload data process, in the form of an ontology. The project includes also the development of a cleaning tool for well-known artifacts maintenance operations. The paper presents the current stage of the project that will lead to overall system final demonstrations, during Summer 2015, in two different scenarios, Sicily (Italy) and Baltic Sea (Estonia)., European AR-ROWS project (European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research grant agreement no.308724)

We propose a method designed for processing acoustic and optical data producing information about the presence of manmade and archaeological objects lying on the seabed. This method statistically highlights this type of artifacts among surrounding environment, weighting properly the persistence of meaningful curves in a video sequence, or in a sonogram. To this aim, we made use of the ELSD algorithm, a parameterless method inspired by Gestalt principles which has proven to provide promising results.

In the field of underwater cultural heritage, advanced technologies and tools are under development aiming at discovering, mapping, studying and securing archaeological sites. In this paper, we describe the system developed in order to disseminate the data collected during underwater exploration and to provide, to the archeologist, an effective tool to explore and analyze each explored underwater archaeological site. With this aim, the system exploits collected raw data together with the results of the detailed analysis and embeds them in a 3D interactive and informative scene. The scene is accessible both by the experts (for research purposes) and by general public (for dissemination of the underwater cultural heritage).

The three-years European FP7 ARROWS project (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas) concluded at the end of August 2015. A heterogeneous team of cooperating AUVs has been created in the framework of ARROWS: these are both new prototypes and well known commercial vehicles. In the paper MARTA modular AUV is described: MARTA is a new prototype specifically designed during the project. Its navigation and payload capabilities are discussed and some of the results, mainly optical acquisitions for the archaeologists, reached during the first official demo of the ARROWS European project (Sicily, Italy, May and June 2015) are reported and commented.

In the framework of the ARROWS project (FP7 Environment 308724, September 2012 - August 2015), venture funded by the European Commission, modular Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have been developed to the main purposes of mapping, diagnosing, cleaning, and securing of underwater and coastal archaeological sites. These AUVs consist of modular mobile robots, designed and manufactured according to specific directions formulated by a group of expert archaeologists, the Archaeological Advisory Group (AAG). A preliminary fleet of mobile robots, with supplied functionalities that can be adjusted on the mission purpose, has been put together. The vehicles are typically equipped with acoustic modems to communicate during the dive and with different payload devices to sense the environment: a pair of synchronized digital cameras operating in the visible light range, a structured light source (blue laser) plus led illuminators and, depending on the mission requirement, a multibeam forward looking echo-sounder or a side looking sonar. These sensors represent appealing choices to the oceanographic engineer since they provide complementary information about the surrounding environment. Generally speaking acoustic sensors are exploited to create large scale maps of the environment while cameras provide more detailed images of the targets. The main goal of the ARROWS missions is to perform a systematic mapping of the marine seafloors and to process the output maps to detect and classify potential archaeological targets.

This paper describes a virtual environment designed and developed aiming at increasing the fruition of underwater exploration. Such system is under development in the frame of ARROWS project (end August 2015, funded by the European Commission). Main objectives of ARROWS project are the development and integration of advanced technologies and tools for mapping, diagnosing, cleaning, and securing underwater and coastal archaeological sites. Along with it, an informative system, that has the role to make easier the management of the heterogeneous set of data available (such as archival and historical data; georeferenced images, sonograms, videos; texture and shape of artefacts; others), is in development. The virtual environment aims at representing all the available data in a 3D interactive and informative scene. In this way, the archaeological site is accessible both to experts (for research purposes, e.g. classification of artefacts by template matching) and to the general public (for dissemination of the underwater cultural heritage). Due to the high educational value of this system, it has been enriched by dedicated functionalities for the management and representation of biological information, which was beyond the original project scopes.

In the framework of the ARROWS project September 2012 - August 2015, a venture funded by the European Commission, several modular Autonomous Underwater Vehicles AUV have been developed to the main purposes of mapping, diagnosing, cleaning, and securing underwater and coastal archaeological sites. These AUVs consist of modular mobile robots, designed and manufactured according to specific suggestions formulated by a pool of archaeologists featuring long-standing experience in the field of Underwater Cultural Heritage preservation. The vehicles are typically equipped with acoustic modems to communicate during the dive and with different payload devices to sense the environment. The selected sensors represent appealing choices to the oceanographic engineer since they provide complementary information about the surrounding environment. The maini¾?topics discussed in this paper concern i performing a systematic mapping of the marine seafloors, ii processing the output maps to detect and classify potential archaeological targets and finally iii developing dissemination systems with the purpose of creating virtual scenes as a photorealistic and informative representation of the surveyed underwater sites.

MARTA (MARine Tool for Archaeology) is a modular AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) designed and developed by the University of Florence in the framework of the ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas) FP7 European project. The ARROWS project challenge is to provide the underwater archaeologists with technological tools for cost affordable campaigns: i.e. ARROWS adapts and develops low cost AUV technologies to significantly reduce the cost of archaeological operations, covering the full extent of an archaeological campaign (underwater mapping, diagnosis and cleaning tasks). The tools and methodologies developed within ARROWS comply with the "Annex" of the 2001 UNESCO Convention for the protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH). The system effectiveness and MARTA performance will be demonstrated in two scenarios, different as regards the environment and the historical context, the Mediterranean Sea (Egadi Islands) and the Baltic Sea.

A new method is proposed to integrate 3D optical and acoustic images relative to the same underwater environment. The combination of optical and acoustic sensors in terms of uniform reference system, geo-referencing and time allows: (i) integration cascade (operational level), (ii) safety data acquisition in various domains (distance from ground, turbid water, vegetation, etc.), (iii) replanning of missions in progress. Furthermore, data fusion can be faced according to different approaches: (a) stratification of referenced data layers, (b) correlation of quantities of different nature, (c) comparison of extracted features: 2D geometries (segments, elementary curves) and 3D (planes, simple surfaces), repetitive patterns, (d) integration of semantic information, (e) template matching for recognizing known structures, (f) creation and refinement of probability maps as a measure of optical (geometry, texture) and acoustic (elevation or reflectivity maps) properties. A set of geometrical and textural feature extraction algorithms is applied to the multi-sensor images and the output results are compared. We aim thus at emphasizing the geometric features correspondences (e.g., lines or different kind of curves), instead of descriptor-based individual feature matching.

The Thesaurus Project, funded by the Regione Toscana, combines humanistic and technological research aiming at developing a new generation of cooperating Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and at documenting ancient and modern Tuscany shipwrecks. Technological research will allow performing an archaeological exploration mission through the use of a swarm of autonomous, smart and self-organizing underwater vehicles. Using acoustic communications, these vehicles will be able to exchange each other data related to the state of the exploration and then to adapt their behavior to improve the survey. The archival research and archaeological survey aim at collecting all reports related to the underwater evidences and the events of sinking occurred in the sea of Tuscany. The collected data will be organized in a specific database suitably modeled.

Mesoscale marine phenomena represent important features to understand and include within predictive models, which provide valuable information for proper environmental policy making. For example the rearrangement of the organic substances, consequent to the dynamics of the water masses affected by the mentioned phenomena, meaningfully modifies the actual condition of local habitats. Indeed it may facilitate the onset of non resident living species at the expense of resident ones, eventually affecting related human activity, such as commercial fishery. Objective of this work is the detection and identification of mesoscale events, in terms of specific marine surface patterns that are observed throughout such events, e.g. water filaments, countercurrents, meanders due to upwelling wind actions stress. These phenomena can be studied and monitored through the analysis of Sea Surface Temperature images captured by satellite missions, such as Metop, and MODIS Terra/Aqua. A quantitative description of such events is proposed, based on dedicated algorithms that extract temporal and spatial features from the images, and exploit them to provide a signature discriminating different observed scenarios. Preliminary results of the application of the proposed approach to a dataset related to the southwestern region of the Iberian Peninsula are presented.