Tracking of multiple markers based on color for visual servo control in underwater docking

Autonomous underwater vehicle can perform underwater docking to power up its battery in order to prolong operation thereby reduces maintenance and cost. Prior researches indicate visual servo technique is used for docking operation. Basically, image of markers placed on underwater station is captured and the vehicle surges towards the station. These previous works focuses on deep water environment where the view is uncluttered. It will be a challenging problem if the view has so much information to be processed likewise shallow water which inadvertently reduces the chances of successful docking operation. This paper proposed tracking method using color where the markers were placed in cluttered environment. The method shows a promising result where absolute errors between current captured images and a desired image kept on reducing as the camera closing in on the markers.