|
"Piercing the Deep: Advancements in Extended Range Underwater Optical Imaging" • Fraser Dalgleish, Ph.D. About the Lecture Throughout the last four decades there have been considerable improvements in the ability to image underwater using optical wavelengths. As well as documenting the history of some of these developments, a few of which were actually made at HBOI in the 1980s and 1990s, the essence of this talk is in describing the new capabilities being made possible with ongoing advances in photonics and electronics, together with the increasing acceptance and reliability of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology. About the Speaker Fraser Dalgleish was born and raised near Edinburgh, Scotland. He obtained a B. Eng. in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from The University of Edinburgh and an M.Sc. in Subsea Engineering and Ph.D. in Underwater Optics from Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, England. Having joined HBOI in 2004 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Optical Oceanography department, he now leads the Underwater Optical Imaging Research group within the Center for Ocean Exploration. The speaker considers the fact that only small patches of the underwater environment are typically visible to a high level of detail at any one time a serious problem in our quest to explore the worldÕs oceans. His ongoing aim is, therefore, both in improving the contrast, resolution, and viewable range possible in ocean waters, as well as transitioning this technology onto the growing fleet of AUVs, which can either acquire many individual images to generate a composite image of a larger patch, or use a large number of co-operating AUVs to obtain coverage of this larger patch in real time. His current research is in developing electro-optical imaging and detection systems which are compact enough for deployment as payloads for the common classes of AUV. For the tank-based evaluation of these systems, HBOI has recently fabricated a large optical test facility, which has a unique combination of capabilities for applied research in both optical imaging and communications. More fundamental research efforts, directed at investigating the absorption phenomenon of ultra-fast pulses in natural waters, are in collaboration with the University of Central Florida. The group is also working closely with Dr. Brian Lapointe, who leads Harbor BranchÕs harmful macroalgal bloom monitoring program, to integrate an optical sensing payload onto the FAU Ocean Explorer AUV. |