Underwater robots emit sound during operations which can deteriorate the quality of acoustic data recorded by on-board sensors or disturb marine fauna during in vivo observations. Notwithstanding this, there have only been a few attempts at characterizing the acoustic emissions of underwater robots in the literature, and the datasheets of commercially available devices do not report information on this topic. This work has a twofold goal. First, we identified a setup consisting of a camera directly mounted on the robot structure to acquire the acoustic data and two indicators (i.e., spectral roll-off point and noise introduced to the environment) to provide a simple and intuitive characterization of the acoustic emissions of underwater robots carrying out specific maneuvers in specific environments. Second, we performed the proposed analysis on three underwater robots belonging to the classes of remotely operated vehicles and underwater legged robots. Our results showed how the legged device produced a clearly different signature compared to remotely operated vehicles which can be an advantage in operations that require low acoustic disturbance. Finally, we argue that the proposed indicators, obtained through a standardized procedure, may be a useful addition to datasheets of existing underwater robots.

中文翻译：

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表征水下航行器发出的声学噪声的最小指标


水下机器人在操作过程中发出声音，这可能会降低机载传感器记录的声学数据的质量，或在体内观察期间干扰海洋动物。尽管如此，文献中只进行了一些表征水下机器人声发射的尝试，并且商用设备的数据表没有报告有关此主题的信息。这项工作有双重目标。首先，我们确定了一种设置，其中包括直接安装在机器人结构上的相机，用于采集声学数据和两个指标（即频谱滚降点和引入环境的噪声），以提供简单直观的声发射表征水下机器人在特定环境中执行特定操作。其次，我们对属于遥控潜水器和水下腿机器人类别的三种水下机器人进行了拟议的分析。我们的结果表明，与远程操作车辆相比，腿式设备如何产生明显不同的特征，这在需要低声干扰的操作中可能是一个优势。最后，我们认为通过标准化程序获得的拟议指标可能是对现有水下机器人数据表的有用补充。