Synthetic Enclosed Echoes: A New Dataset to Mitigate the Gap Between Simulated and Real-World Sonar Data

TL;DR

This paper presents Synthetic Enclosed Echoes (SEE), a hybrid dataset of synthetic and real sonar data designed to improve underwater perception and 3D reconstruction, bridging the gap between simulation and reality.

Contribution

The paper introduces SEE, a high-fidelity synthetic sonar dataset with a simulated environment for flexible data generation, and proposes a modification to an existing algorithm to enhance underwater sonar processing.

Findings

Validated the dataset with acoustic data-based methods.

Demonstrated improved performance of a modified algorithm.

Showcased the dataset's effectiveness for real-world underwater applications.

Abstract

This paper introduces Synthetic Enclosed Echoes (SEE), a novel dataset designed to enhance robot perception and 3D reconstruction capabilities in underwater environments. SEE comprises high-fidelity synthetic sonar data, complemented by a smaller subset of real-world sonar data. To facilitate flexible data acquisition, a simulated environment has been developed, enabling the generation of additional data through modifications such as the inclusion of new structures or imaging sonar configurations. This hybrid approach leverages the advantages of synthetic data, including readily available ground truth and the ability to generate diverse datasets, while bridging the simulation-to-reality gap with real-world data acquired in a similar environment. The SEE dataset comprehensively evaluates acoustic data-based methods, including mathematics-based sonar approaches and deep learning algorithms. These techniques were employed to validate the dataset, confirming its suitability for underwater 3D reconstruction. Furthermore, this paper proposes a novel modification to a state-of-the-art algorithm, demonstrating improved performance compared to existing methods. The SEE dataset enables the evaluation of acoustic data-based methods in realistic scenarios, thereby improving their feasibility for real-world underwater applications.