Development for teleoperation underwater grasping system in unclear environment

The mechanization of underwater construction is not so much advanced as the mechanization of construction on the ground. Most port construction works depend on diver labor. Considering the efficiency and safety of divers, it is necessary to introduce an underwater construction machine. Especially, a teleoperational underwater backhoe with grasping system will be useful for setting and removing brocks or rubble, and dismantling broken facilities. In case of teleoperation on the ground, it is possible to use machine vision or human eyes to observe motion of a controlled machine. However, underwater, turbidity caused by raising earth and sand by water currents disturbs the vision. The efficiency of a grasping operation in water deteriorates. Therefore, we consider applying augmented reality (AR) technology to the grasping system. In AR technology of this research, information from a sensor is extended or processed to compensate for the lack of visual information. It is assured that the application of AR technology is effective for the grasping operation under poor visible circumstances through examinee experiments of a computer simulation. In this paper, we present AR technology and a validity of this teleoperation system.