Interpretation of underwater scene data acquired by a 3-D acoustic camera

A system for the processing and interpretation of underwater images acquired with an acoustic sensor is presented. As a first objective, the system aims to recognize simple objects with known characteristics located at different positions so as to create a scenario. The proposed recognition system exhibits the features of a knowledge-based system, as it is based on ideal models (provided by an expert) of the possible objects present in the scene, and the matching of such models with the real objects detected by processing data coming from the acquisition system. The numerical data provided by different types of sensors are first processed by some low-level modules. The high-level modules operate a matching of the objects detected with the models, according to criteria of maximum fuzzy reliability. Results are presented and discussed