UTOFIA: Time-of-Flight camera for underwater applications

Today’s ever increasing proliferation of information, real-time data feeds and overwhelming sensor coverage, can often make the world feel small and constrained. However, the oceans and seas contain some of the world’s most unexplored and uncharted regions, and hold valuable physical and informational resources for the planet’s population. As well as the obvious mineral wealth, knowledge regarding the health and well-being of the underwater environment will become critical information over the coming years. Understanding and monitoring fish stocks, mapping the sea floor and assessing the health of the ecosystem, whilst noting the impact of human activity are becoming an increasing concern for both public and commercial bodies. UTOFIA is a H2020 project (633098) is undertaking the development, testing and commercialization of a new, compact and cost-efficient concept for underwater range-gated imaging system. It will offer a compact and cost-effective underwater imaging system for turbid environments. Using range-gated imaging, the system will extend the imaging range by factor 2 to 3 over conventional video systems. At the same time, the system will provide video-rate 3D information. This will fill the current gap between short-range, high-resolution conventional video and long-range low-resolution sonar systems. UTOFIA offers a new modus operandi for the main targeted domains of application: marine life monitoring, harbour and ocean litter detection, fisheries and aquaculture stock assessment, and seabed mapping. Progress in UTOFIA has been rapid, and we present here a summary of results from deployments of prototypes in observing marine organisms – as a demonstration of the application of the system in monitoring underwater habitats, stock assessment and for use in offshore fish farms.