Underwater Material Discriminability with Fluorescence Lidar in Unknown Environmental Conditions

Discriminating different underwater objects based on their material is of great interest in many maritime applications, such as safe navigation and seafloor mapping. Fluorescence Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) systems allow different materials to be discriminated based on their spectral fluorescence properties. However, acquisition conditions play an important role in underwater material discriminability, and a scarce and/or inaccurate knowledge of such conditions may impair final performance. In this work, we investigate underwater material discriminability in unknown environmental conditions. Experimental results obtained with synthetic data reveal the potential of the explored approach.