Underwater Time Of Flight Image Acquisition System (UTOFIA)

Short description of the project: UTOFIA was a three-year project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme, aimed at offering compact and cost-effective underwater imaging system for turbid environments.

Tangible results: The project developed prototypes for a commercial underwater inspection system using 3D ‘time-of-flight’ technology, to tackle imaging problems that arise from turbid environments. It does so by emitting very short pulses of light, timed to match the shutter of a camera, as opposed to a continuous stream of light.

Application/relevance: This technology is of interest for marine science, public sector environmental monitoring, commercial fisheries/aquaculture stock assessment and subsea technologies, such as seabed mapping. In the long term, the systems could aid the autonomous functioning of subsea vehicles.