MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers are developing hardware and algorithms for underwater navigation and perception to improve collaboration between divers and autonomous underwater vehicles engaged in maritime missions.

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MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers are building hardware and algorithms to enable collaboration between human divers and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for maritime missions. The project addresses two core challenges: navigation (helping divers and AUVs track each other's positions in dynamic ocean conditions) and perception (an AI classifier that processes optical and sonar data and can ask divers to resolve uncertain object classifications). The team developed a sensor payload integrating sonar, optical sensors, and acoustic modems, and has tested it in coastal New England waters and with human divers at Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center. A key constraint is the low bandwidth of underwater acoustic communications, requiring heavy data compression. The research also explores transferring knowledge from optical classifiers to sonar classifiers to reduce the burden of labeling sonar training data.

Human-machine teaming dives underwater