Underwater Vision-Based Gesture Recognition: A Robustness Validation for Safe Human–Robot Interaction

Abstract

Underwater robotics requires very reliable and safe operations. This holds especially true for missions in cooperation with divers who are-despite the significant advancements of marine robotics in recent years-still essential for many underwater operations. Possible application cases of underwater human-robot collaboration include marine science, archeology, oil and gas production, handling of unexploded ordnance (e.g., from World War II ammunition dumped in the seas), or the inspection and maintenance of marine infrastructure like pipelines, harbors, or renewable energy installations, to name just a few examples.