RECTILINEAR PATH DETECTION OF A TARGET IN THE WATER COLUMN BY USING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL HOUGH TRANSFORM OF FORWARD LOOKING SONAR DATA
Résumé
This paper presents a new approach to the problem of tracking objects in
sequences of forward looking sonar images. Unlike previous work, we propose a “track
before detect” procedure based on a specific Hough Transform. The Hough transform is a
famous method for detecting lines in binary images but in this study, FLS sonar data are in
grayscale and plotted in three dimensions. In typical FLS sonar images indeed, pixel intensity
represents the backscattering at a given distance and a given azimuth but for a large range of
elevations. The standard Hough transform has been adapted to this particular data set, and
preliminary results have been obtained on real data.