Analysis of Uncertainty in Laser-Scanned Bathymetric Maps

For 3D seafloor maps to be usable as a quantitative measurement tool, the dimensional uncertainty of the data must be assessed. This research proposes an algorithm for measuring the uncertainty, that can be applied to any system that uses a stereo camera and sheet laser, and can produce maps with bounded dimensional error margins. The methods described evaluate the setup accuracy of the sheet laser used for light sectioning by applying computer vision techniques to the images captured by a stereo camera. The algorithm was applied to a data set collected off the coast of Japan in 2017 at Takuyo Daigo Seamount and was used to characterise the dimensional uncertainty of the data that was obtained using an autonomous underwater vehicle.