New multi-camera system creates panoramic images of seafloor at 1,500-meter depth

"Under conventional operation modes, when a single camera is used for seabed photogrammetry, submersibles have to cruise back and forth along planned routes to guarantee data overlap," said Lyu Ning, a teacher from the university's School of Electronic Engineering who leads the research team. "This process is not only time-consuming but also prone to observation gaps, while imposing high operational demands on submersible pilots."

By contrast, the system adopts three cameras for parallel data acquisition. A single voyage can cover an area three times larger than that of the single-camera solution, enabling researchers to view underwater targets in a more intuitive manner and freeing up more of the submersible's limited operational time for other tasks.