Hydrographic Systems and Sensors

Dear Colleagues,

As is well known, seas and oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth's surface. The part of the Earth's surface that is covered by water is often less well understood than the surface of the Moon or Mars. In recent years, hydrography, especially using autonomous vehicles, has become one of the leading research areas in the world. Sensors used so far in hydrography, mainly sonars and echosounders, are more and more commonly placed on unmanned vehicles that perform measurement functions in an autonomous manner.   In addition to the hydroacoustic sensors used so far, magnetic or gravity sensors are used. They provide a variety of environmental data on both given bodies of water and on water depths. Rapidly developing new technologies such as multisensory data fusion, big data processing and deep learning are opening up new areas of application, improving sensors and applied hydrographic systems. The impact of artificial intelligence on the processing and understanding of sensor data is particularly pronounced. Echosounders, sonars, magnetometers, gravimeters, and other sensors mounted on board smart and flexible autonomous or remotely operated platforms are bringing new quality to hydrographic applications, including on various types of unmanned vehicles both surface and underwater. Systems and sensors designed for measurements, mainly bathymetric, placed on flying platforms are developing rapidly. These technologies, focusing on autonomous unmanned hydrography, represent contemporary scientific challenges.

In this Special Issue, we will collect articles on many aspects of underwater survey technology and advanced hydrographic problems, implemented mainly based on hydroacoustic, magnetometer, gravimetric, LiDAR sensors and video cameras, including applications in autonomous unmanned vehicles, such as autonomous hydrography, multisensory fusion, processing of large amounts of sensor data for hydrographic surveying, sensor synergy in hydrographic guidance, algorithms for bottom detection and underwater object detection, multisensory data fusion, and artificial intelligence methods in hydrography.

Prof. Dr. Andrzej Stateczny
Guest Editor

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