Session: 07-05 -01 Ice Model Tests

Submission Number: 180556

An Experimental Setup for Small-Scale Model Ice Tracking 

The rise in polar marine operations has motivated research in numerous areas, including the safe navigation through ice covered waters and offshore marine structures design. However, ship-ice interaction is a complex problem that involves several processes related to interaction and failure of ice. To gain phenomenal understanding, we need to simplify the tests to get understanding from separate processes. To that end, small-scale experimental testing is a cost-effective approach to evaluate and verify hypotheses, as well as to validate numerical simulations.
In this study, an experimental setup is proposed for small-scale, surface object tracking (e.g., model ice), using an embedded Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor within the object itself. The system is tested in controlled conditions in a small water tank. Then, the results from the IMU-based position tracking are compared against a commercial Digital Image Correlation
(DIC) system, as well as a purpose built, stereo machine vision setup, to validate its suitability and accuracy. Compared to the other camera-based methods, an IMU can provide not only the position of an object, but also its three-dimensional velocity and accelerations. Furthermore, a sensor-fusion technique is proposed, based on the well-known Extended Kalman Filter
(EKF), where the information from both the IMU sensor and stereo camera setup are integrated to improve on the accuracy of both systems separately.
The objective is to develop a cost-effective system capable of providing real-time, accurate 3D-tracking of multiple surface objects, to help future studies.

Presenting Author: Andrei Sandru Aalto University

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Andrei Sandru received his MSc with honours in 2018 and his PhD in 2025, both from Aalto University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation. He completed his doctoral degree at the Autonomous Systems research group in cooperation with the Marine and Arctic Technology group at Aalto University. His work focuses on perception systems for ice-going ships, including machine vision, mobile mapping, laser scanning, situational awareness, and sensor fusion.

Authors:

Andrei Sandru Aalto University
Shayan Rabizade Aalto University
Mikko Suominen Aalto University