UC3: Seabed Classification

Detailed maps of the sea-bed that inlcude information about topography, sediment types and benthic fauna and flora are important for the exploration and exploitation of the world’s oceans. Sea-bed classification with sonar is fast but needs to be calibrated with visual data to yield good results.      

Data collected for the UC3 during the execution of the project will be made available as public datasets. It will come from two main sources.

(1) Collected by TA specifically as training data for the project, or

(2) by UDG using their boat, either during validation trials or during specific data collection efforts required to complement the training data provided by TA.

These data will consist of sidescan sonar surveys over areas where optical imagery was also acquired by a high definition video camera. Whenever possible, multibeam echosounder bathymetric and forward-looking sonar data will also be collected and made available. As part of WP4, these data will be annotated by an expert from TA, so that it can be used easily as training data by the scientific community.