Li Ling

I am a PhD student at the Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning supervised by John Folkesson, co-supervised by Nils Bore.

As part of the Swedish Maritime Robotics Centre (SMaRC), my research focuses on utilizing deep learning techniques for the perception and navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). More specifically, I am interested in applying modern computer vision models on side scan sonar images to aid AUV navigation and bathymetry reconstruction. Side scan sonar is a relatively economical instrument capable of providing high-resolution, photo-realistic images of the seafloor, and is therefore a good candidate for these applications. Some prior work on local feature correspondence using side scan sonar images can be found in my master’s thesis. I am also contributing to building the SMaRC software stack, as well as developing perception algorithms for SAM, a Small & Affordable Maritime Robot developed by SMaRC.

My background is heavily software related. Prior to my PhD studies, I obtained a computer science and engineering degree from KTH, with a master’s degree in machine learning. Recently, I’ve developed more interest in geology and would like to combine my AUV research with underwater observations from the Arctic and Antarctica.