In March of 2022, a sensor package was installed on board the CCGS Henry Larsen. The package contained a camera network which recorded ice around the vessel (360°), forward-looking Light Detection and Ranging device (LIDAR) and stereo cameras. This visual and topographical sensor package was supplemented with a data acquisition system which recorded propulsion, GPS, speed and heading information. This paper discusses and presents analysis work using the raw field data towards generating a continuous record of ice conditions. We present results towards automating the extraction of concentration from forward looking cameras, and estimation of the ridge sail height distribution near the vessel from LIDAR. The performance of the sensors and concepts for future ship based sensing projects are presented and discussed.
Full scale sea trials were performed in March of 2022 with the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Henry Larsen. The purpose of the trials was to quantify the performance of the bubbler in sea ice conditions (Wang et al., 2023). The work was performed in the Strait of Belle Isle, between western Newfoundland and eastern Labrador, Canada over a period of 13 days. The trials work was leveraged to collect a ‘Situational Awareness’ (SA) data package, to support research and development in the areas of automatic ice classification, threat identification and digitization of the local environment around the vessel for icebreaker performance assessment activities. The SA instrumentation was installed on the vessel with locations shown in Fig. 1. The list of camera equipment installed with associated field of view, location and camera resolution and framerate is provided in Table 1. The planned ice parameters to be extracted from the sensors are given in Table 2.
In addition to the above, a Livox Mid-70 LIDAR was installed on the same frame as the bow mounted stereo cameras, and a crane mounted electromagnetic (EM) sensor was also used during the trials work. The EM sensor was deployed only a few times due to the crane operational requirements and limited crew availability during the expedition.
