Spills of liquid petroleum hydrocarbons are a growing concern worldwide, posing great risks to marine life and community services. Identifying and treating oil spills is operationally and scientifically challenging and compounded by the difficulty in accurately obtaining real-time measurements of the oil thickness slicks. Here, we present a method that allows precise real-time measurement of oil slick thickness, based on activ...

This study presents the redesign of an existing autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with limited maneuverability, transforming it into a platform optimized for autonomous, near-seabed visual imaging missions. This work describes the enhancement of the AUV’s maneuverability through the addition of thrusters, the leveraging of a state-of-the-art thrust allocation algorithm, and the development of both a path-following controller...

Marine animal forests are benthic communities dominated by sessile suspension feeders (such as sponges, corals, and bivalves) able to generate three-dimensional (3D) frameworks with high structural complexity. The biodiversity and functioning of marine animal forests are strictly related to their 3D complexity. The present paper aims at providing new perspectives in underwater optical surveys. Starting from the current gaps in...