Epipolar geometry of opti-acoustic stereo imaging

Optical and acoustic cameras are suitable imaging systems to inspect underwater structures, both in regular maintenance and security operations. Despite high resolution, optical systems have limited visibility range when deployed in turbid waters. In contrast, the new generation of high-frequency (MHz) acoustic cameras can provide images with enhanced target details in highly turbid waters, though their range is reduced by one to two orders of magnitude compared to traditional low-/midfrequency (10s-100s KHz) sonar systems. It is conceivable that an effective inspection strategy is the deployment of both optical and acoustic cameras on a submersible platform, to enable target imaging in a range of turbidity conditions. Under this scenario and where visibility allows, registration of the images from both cameras arranged in binocular stereo configuration provides valuable scene information that cannot be readily recovered from each sensor alone. We explore and derive the constraint equations for the epipolar geometry and stereo triangulation in utilizing these two sensing modalities with different projection models. Theoretical results supported by computer simulations show that an opti-acoustic stereo imaging system outperforms a traditional binocular vision with optical cameras, particularly for increasing target distance and (or) turbidity.