Towards seafloor mapping using an affordable micro-UUV

Seafloor mapping and monitoring are essential for creating a sustainable economy and widen our understanding of the ocean environments. However, the cost of conducting underwater operations has always been high. This paper presents our progress on developing an affordable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), equipped with an interferometric sonar for seabed mapping at low altitudes or in coastal water. The designed AUV has an interferometric sonar for measuring the seafloor topography and a compact DVL to aid its navigation. This paper also presents an algorithmic pipeline for filtering the noisy swath data points from the interferometric sonar. Field tests have been conducted in a freshwater pond with results presented in this paper.