Improvement in Combined Aerial and Underwater Drone System and its Field Trial

The underwater inspection of submerged infrastructure and aquaculture facilities formerly required traveling by ship to offshore locations where divers conducted visual inspections by diving on site. However, there are issues such as a shortage of inspection staff and the dangers of diving operations. Therefore, recently, underwater inspection has also been performed by remotely operating underwater drones (remotely operated vehicles: ROVs) from a surface vessel, but using ships is costly. Similar issues exist not only in the inspection of infrastructure facilities but also in activities such as monitoring seaweed beds and inspecting ship hulls. To address these issues, we are developing a drone system that can inspect underwater areas offshore from a remote location on land. The drone system we are developing is based on a drone control platform that utilizes an LTE mobile network [1][2]. This system makes it possible for a drone to fly through the air, move on the surface of water, and dive underwater. It enables the inspection staff to take underwater video remotely without the need to travel by boat to offshore locations. In this paper, we describe a new system that addresses several issues identified in previous demonstrations and describe the new demonstrations that have been conducted.