Optical Mosaicking and 3D Reconstruction aboard an Underway Iver3 UUV

Traditionally, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) serve as data recorders, collecting and storing data for post-processing after the mission is completed. Computer processing power aboard UUVs, however, has steadily increased to match pace with consumer computational hardware. As this computational capacity continues to grow, new opportunities are becoming available for on-board automated target recognition, image processing, mosaicking, and other data product creation. These data products can now be analyzed, compressed, and transmitted mid-mission via acoustic modems, radio modems at the surface, or even over Iridium satellite communications. This mid-mission intelligence lends to greater dynamic mission control, a reduction in operator reaction time, and much lower latency in the age of useful data. In this paper, we will discuss the new L3 OceanServer Iver3 camera system and its use to generate on-board data products like benthic mosaics and 3D reconstructions.