Structured light vision based pipeline tracking and 3D reconstruction method for underwater vehicle

The inspection of underwater pipeline by underwater vehicles is of great significance to ensure safe transportation. However, most of underwater pipeline inspection methods have disadvantages such as low precision, low resolution and less information, and cannot realize the fine three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of underwater pipelines. In order to address these problems, an underwater pipeline tracking and 3D reconstruction method for underwater vehicle based on structured light vision (SLV) is proposed. Firstly, a dual-line laser SLV is developed, and a new underwater pipeline positioning method is proposed, which can simultaneously obtain the lateral deviation, height deviation and heading deviation of underwater vehicle and underwater pipeline under weak light water environment. Then, by combining laser stripe image feature points, refracted underwater SLV model and Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) information, underwater pipeline tracking and dense 3D reconstruction are realized. Finally, by integrating the self-designed underwater SLV sensor with the underwater vehicle BlueROV, an underwater pipeline tracking and 3D reconstruction system is developed. A series of planar and spatial pipeline tracking and 3D reconstruction experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.