Subsea exploration, inspection, and intervention operations heavily rely on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). However, the inherent complexity of the underwater environment presents significant challenges to the operators of these vehicles. This paper delves into the challenges associated with navigation and maneuvering tasks in the teleoperation of ROVs, such as reduced situational awareness and heightened teleoperator workload. To address these challenges, we introduce an underwater Digital Twin (DT) system designed to enhance underwater teleoperation, enable autonomous navigation, support system monitoring, and facilitate system testing through simulation. Our approach involves a dynamic representation of the underwater robot and its environment using desktop virtual reality, as well as the integration of mapping, localization, path planning and simulation capabilities within the DT system. Our research demonstrates the system's adaptability, versatility and feasibility, highlighting significant challenges and, in turn, improving the teleoperators' situational awareness and reducing their workload.

翻译：海底勘探、检测与干预作业高度依赖遥控无人潜水器（ROV）。然而，水下环境的固有复杂性给这些载具的操作人员带来了重大挑战。本文深入探讨了ROV远程操控中导航与机动任务相关的挑战，例如情境感知能力降低以及远程操作员工作负荷增加。针对这些问题，我们提出了一种水下数字孪生（DT）系统，旨在增强水下远程操控、支持自主导航、实现系统监控，并通过仿真促进系统测试。该方法利用桌面虚拟现实技术对水下机器人及其环境进行动态表征，并在DT系统中集成了建图、定位、路径规划与仿真功能。本研究证明了该系统的适应性、通用性与可行性，显著揭示了关键挑战，并由此提升了远程操作员的情境感知能力，同时降低了其工作负荷。