ソナーポイントクラウドからの訓練不要水中3D物体検出に向けて:従来手法と深層学習手法の比較
Towards Training-Free Underwater 3D Object Detection from Sonar Point Clouds: A Comparison of Traditional and Deep Learning Approaches
水中3D物体検出を訓練データなしで実現するため、物理ベースのソナーシミュレーションで合成データを生成し深層学習モデルを訓練する手法と、幾何学的形状を利用したテンプレートマッチング手法を比較した。実海域データではテンプレートマッチングが訓練不要で高いロバスト性を示した。
著者: M. Salman Shaukat, Yannik Käckenmeister, Sebastian Bader, Thomas Kirste
分類: cs.CV, cs.AI, cs.LG, cs.RO
原文アブストラクト
Underwater 3D object detection remains one of the most challenging frontiers in computer vision, where traditional approaches struggle with the harsh acoustic environment and scarcity of training data. While deep learning has revolutionized terrestrial 3D detection, its application underwater faces a critical bottleneck: obtaining sufficient annotated sonar data is prohibitively expensive and logistically complex, often requiring specialized vessels, expert surveyors, and favorable weather conditions. This work addresses a fundamental question: Can we achieve reliable underwater 3D object detection without real-world training data? We tackle this challenge by developing and comparing two paradigms for training-free detection of artificial structures in multibeam echo-sounder point clouds. Our dual approach combines a physics-based sonar simulation pipeline that generates synthetic training data for state-of-the-art neural networks, with a robust model-based template matching system that leverages geometric priors of target objects. Evaluation on real bathymetry surveys from the Baltic Sea reveals surprising insights: while neural networks trained on synthetic data achieve 98% mean Average Precision (mAP) on simulated scenes, they drop to 40% mAP on real sonar data due to domain shift. Conversely, our template matching approach maintains 83% mAP on real data without requiring any training, demonstrating remarkable robustness to acoustic noise and environmental variations. Our findings challenge conventional wisdom about data-hungry deep learning in underwater domains and establish the first large-scale benchmark for training-free underwater 3D detection. This work opens new possibilities for autonomous underwater vehicle navigation, marine archaeology, and offshore infrastructure monitoring in data-scarce environments where traditional machine learning approaches fail.