GLOSSARY

音響通信

Sending data through water using sound waves. Slower than radio but able to reach over distance, used to communicate with a vehicle while submerged.

音響測位

Determining an underwater vehicle’s position from the travel time or direction of sound (e.g. USBL/LBL), providing a reference where radio waves attenuate.

自律型無人潜水機

An untethered underwater robot that dives and surveys on its own according to a pre-programmed mission. The core of what AquaWiz builds.

自律性

The capacity to sense, decide, and act without human intervention. AquaWiz aims for high autonomy at roughly one-hundredth the cost of conventional drones.

バラスト

Weight (or water taken in and expelled) used to tune a vehicle’s mass and buoyancy balance, controlling depth by dropping or flooding it.

水深測量

The measurement of seafloor or lakebed depth and shape, and the resulting maps, acquired with sonar and forming the basis of underwater terrain charts.

浮力エンジン

A mechanism that changes a vehicle’s volume or mass to adjust net buoyancy and drive ascent or descent. AquaWiz uses a CO2-plus-solenoid approach.

推測航法

Estimating position step by step from speed, heading, and elapsed time. A staple where no external fix is available underwater, though errors accumulate.

溶存酸素

The amount of oxygen dissolved in water, an indicator of water quality and ecosystem health and a key item in environmental monitoring.

ドップラ速度計

A device that pings the seabed and uses the Doppler shift of the echo to measure the vehicle’s speed over ground, essential for precise underwater navigation.

視野角

The angular extent a camera or sensor captures at once. A wider field of view eases situational awareness and shapes navigation and survey design.

全地球測位システム

A satellite system that fixes absolute position at the surface. Unusable underwater, so AUVs use it to reset position when they surface.

ハイダイナミックレンジ

An imaging method that preserves detail across very bright and dark areas. AquaWiz captures underwater scenes in 4K HDR.

静水圧

Pressure from the weight of the water column, rising with depth (roughly one atmosphere per 10 m). It sets the requirements for pressure-housing design.

慣性計測装置

A sensor combining accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure acceleration and angular rate, providing the basis for attitude estimation and navigation.

ロングタームエボリューション

A high-speed mobile communications standard. AquaWiz uses LTE with GPS the instant it surfaces to fix position, send data, and update its web console.

中性浮力

The state where buoyant and gravitational forces balance so the vehicle neither rises nor sinks, key to holding depth efficiently.

物体検出

Machine-learning techniques that locate and identify objects in images. AquaWiz uses AI to detect, track, and classify fish.

ペイロード

The mission-purpose instruments and sensors a vehicle carries, as distinct from the equipment required just to move and navigate.

フォトグラメトリ

Reconstructing 3D shape from many overlapping photographs, used to digitize underwater structures and seabed terrain.

耐圧容器

A sealed enclosure that protects electronics from water pressure. Deeper ratings demand stronger designs and are a major driver of cost.

遠隔操作型無人潜水機

A tethered underwater robot piloted by an operator from a support vessel. Power and data run through the cable, limiting range but allowing real-time control.

塩分

The concentration of dissolved salts in water. It affects density, sound speed, and buoyancy, and is a fundamental ocean-observation parameter.

ソナー

Sound Navigation And Ranging: a technique that uses reflected sound to detect and image objects and terrain underwater.

テレメトリ

Transmitting a vehicle’s status data such as depth, temperature, and voltage to a remote station. AquaWiz uploads survey data over LTE on surfacing.

水温躍層

A layer where temperature changes sharply with depth. It refracts sound and shapes biological distribution, a structure to account for in dive planning.

スラスタ

A propeller-driven unit that produces thrust. Several are arranged to control surge, turning, and vertical motion of the vehicle.

トリム

A vehicle’s pitch and attitude balance, set by arranging the centers of gravity and buoyancy to keep a stable cruising posture.

無人水上艇

An uncrewed boat that navigates the surface autonomously or remotely, often used to relay, recover, or acoustically position an AUV.

視覚SLAM

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping from camera imagery: building a map of the surroundings while estimating one’s own position within it.

視覚慣性オドメトリ

A technique that fuses camera imagery with IMU data to estimate pose and motion, valuable for navigation where GPS cannot reach underwater.