Implementation and evaluation of the ORB-SLAM3 in the underwater environment

The goal of this paper is to implement the ORB-SLAM3 algorithm on underwater vehicles and evaluate its performance in the underwater environment. We tested the ORB-SLAM3 algorithm using the AQUALOC dataset, which is recorded in different underwater environments close to the seabed by ROVs. Additionally, we built an experimental platform based on the BlueROV2 equipped with a mono-camera and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). We calibrated the mono-camera based on a pinhole camera model and ran the ORB-SLAM3 algorithm with limited perceptional possibilities BlueROV2’s sensors provide. The experiment shows that the visual-only module of the ORB-SLAM3 can effectively locate the underwater vehicle in structured areas, and its visual-inertial module can locate the ROV well even in unstructured areas.