ATSEA: Augmented Telepresence in robot SEAfloor plastic cleanup

Not enough robots are used in the fight against ocean plastics. Most of those that are, focus on surface waste. However, an estimated 99 percent of ocean plastics sinks to the seafloor. Plastic bottles are a big contributor, with an estimated 8 million tons of them entering the ocean each year. ROVs controlled by human operators can be used to collect ocean waste, but human depth perception underwater is obscured, especially on 2D screens. This can be made worse when objects are transparent and backgrounds are near blank, common in underwater scenes. We present work on an underwater mixed reality telepresence system that utilises stereo vision for 3D plastic bottle object detection and audiovisual aids to assist with ROV telemanipulation during plastic waste collection. Initial tests with an unsynchronised pair of stereo cameras showed that block matching algorithms had difficulty finding matches with transparent materials. Using a synchronised stereo camera and a YOLO-based model, qualitative results are promising. We hypothesise with our mixed reality telepresence system we can increase seafloor plastic bottle collection against traditional ROV end effector collection operation whilst reducing cognitive load.