Projects:2018s1-110 Future Submarine Project

Project Team

Students

Tharidu Maliduwa Arachchige Jacob Parker

Supervisors

Dr. Danny Gibbins Igor Dzeba (SAAB)

Abstract

This project involves the research into and development of a Contact Detection method to be used with a Submarine Optronics System. The aims of this project include:

1. Detecting the presence of a ship at long range, and if possible estimate the range and aspect of the ship
2. At closer range, the ship or target should be detected, the type of ship must be identified/verified and its range and aspect/orientation information should be determined.
3. Certain challenges must be overcome, such as:
   1. Accumulating a sufficient database storing ship models, for the large number of different ship types that would need to be recognised by the system.
   2. Limited viewing condition as:
      1. The submarine's periscope often only reach a height of 60cm above the surface of the water
      2. Tall waves and curvature of the Earth may mean that the ships are only partially visible
      3. Bad weather conditions means that a clear horizon line may not be visible, and ships/targets blend in with the backgrounds
   3. There may be non-significant anomalies in the obtained image that are not ships/targets, and should be ignored by the system (e.g. landmasses, birds/sea-ainmals on the surface, infrastructures on the surface of the water).

The project will involve thorough literature review for object detection methods using image processing techniques in maritime applications, software development and testing. This is an industry sponsored project, sponsored by SAAB Australia.