Overview

CeruleanMap is used in conjunction with the CeruleanTracker application. It needs to run on the same network as the PC running CeruleanTracker, or on the same PC as CeruleanTracker. It is not intended to be an ROV operator’s main user interface.

Main Window

Generally, the map app shows the position of the ROV, and also the location of the Topside GPS connected to CeruleanTracker, if there is one.

The map can also be decorated with known points and regions of interest.

When the CeruleanMap App launches, a control panel is shown on the display (see below). This is where the map is configured if you want it to run differently than the default. To put the panel away, de-select the “Show This Control Panel” checkbox, circled in, red. It will close and move the checkbox to the menu bar (see second figure, below, circled in red.

The control panel has options to turn various types of map decorations on and off. It also has an option to toggle lat/long displays between DD format and DDM format. There is an option to cache satellite imagery as well (see the section on satellite imagery below).

The Map Display

The map below is showing part of Wayzata Bay of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.

The map can be zoomed in and out with the mouse scroll wheel and can be dragged with the mouse to keep the area of interest in the display.

Note: the map will always keep the ROV position in view on the map, when the ROV position is updating, unless you turn this behavior off on control panel. You can also manually send the map to the ROV position using the “Goto” menu.

The Map Display, Tracking DUAL ROV Locators

When connected to an ROV Locator Receiver set to track two ROVL transmitters, the CeruleanMap display will show a second ROV icon. The main ROV icon is a diamond shape and will be either red or yellow depending on which output you have selected in CeruleanTracker. The secondary icon is a violet square.

A few notes:

  • You can switch which ROV is primary or secondary in CeruleanTracker. Note that when you do this, it will greatly confuse any filtering done on the primary ROV position.

  • The secondary icon position is never filtered by CeruleanTracker.

Edit Menu

The Edit menu has options to Erase the ROV trail. It can also clear any waypoints saved since the Console Application was started. This menu also has an option to copy the map window to the clipboard. Right-clicking the mouse in the map window also copies the map to the clipboard.

Waypoint Menu

The Waypoint menu is used to add waypoints at the boat position or the ROV position. Waypoints can be saved to a file at any time. The file format is compatible with the map decoration file. Waypoints are named by date and time, but you can edit the names in the waypoint file after saving them. If you don’t save waypoints they are lost each time the program exits.

Map Decoration File

The map decoration file is assumed to be named “Known Points.txt” and is assumed to be on your desktop. The file can contain points of interest which are optionally plotted on the map with their names. The file can also contain polygons. Open polygons are displayed as piecewise line segments. These can be used as planned routed, boundaries, etc. Closed polygons are displayed as filled regions. They can be used to represent land, areas of interest, etc. Both Open and closed polygons are put into one of four color groups, which plot in that color. Each color group can be turned on and off separately.

The map decoration file is an ordinary text file.

Map Decoration File Format

The maps shown in this manual were decorated using the following file. Note some of the polygons show line wrapping so they can be seen on these pages, but you do not put line breaks in the file.

A polygon definition consists of the word “POLYGON”, a comma, a color group name (“BLACK”, “WHITE”, “BLUE”, “ORANGE”), a comma, and then pairs of comma-separated lat/long coordinates in DD format, with a comma following each pair except the last. For a closed polygon, the final coordinate pair needs to be exactly the same as the first coordinate pair.

# Known Point Database for CeruleanMap Display
#
# Two formats for data entry are recognized:
#
# aaa.aaaaaaa,bbb.bbbbbbb,<label>
#    	Where aaa.aaaaaaa is latitude degrees (including sign, which is negative in the US),
#	and bbb.bbbbbbb is longitude degrees (including sign, which is negative below the equator).
#	This is similar to DD (decimal degrees) format. <Label> is a human-readable text label for 
#	the display (no commas, please!)
#
# ccc,dd.dddddd,eee,ff.ffffff,<label>
#	Where ccc and dd.dddddd are latitude integer degrees and decimal minutes, and
#	eee and ff.ffffff are longitude integer degrees and decimal minutes, and
#	<label> is a human-readable text label for the display (no commas, please!)
#	This format is similar to the DDM (degrees decimal minutes) format common on 
# 	marine GPS displays, except we add a sign to the integer degrees instead of 
#	following the minutes with "N", "E", "S", "W".
#
# It's OK to have entries that are "off the map."  

0,0,Origin
# Places in Minnetonka
46.880704, -91.919797,McQuade Harbor

44.969319,-93.516159,Depot Docks
44.968882,-93.517267,Gas Dock
44.967512,-93.520754,Bwana's Dock
44,58.002,-93,30.9222,Barge Wreck Lowrance
44.96675000,-93.51519000,Barge Wreck ROV 1
44.96681000,-93.51537000,Barge Wreck ROV 2
#44.96677,-93.515283,Nick's Barge
44.969537,-93.517450,Don's Desk
44.968338,-93.518534,BoatWorks Dock 1
44.968463,-93.517588,BoatWorks Dock 2
44.969375,-93.515538,City Docks
#44.968465,-93.511956,Broadway Docks
44.96846000,-93.51197000,BWAY1
44.96850000,-93.51210000,BWAY2
44.96856000,-93.51223000,BWAY3
44.96860000,-93.51237000,BWAY4
44.96866000,-93.51254000,BWAY5
44.962343,-93.515935,Weed Point
44.965735,-93.502043,Yacht Club Launch
44.969262,-93.517416,Cerulean Berth

# Places near LA
#33.0,27.587,-117.0,43.528,W19A
#33.0,23.135,-117.0,38.265,ACE
33.708557, -118.251454,LA Harbor Lighthouse
33.707869, -118.277303,Cabrillo Beach Jetty
33.727311, -118.273586,Fish Market

# Places that will show if no GPS is connected
0.001,0.001,NE Demo Object
-0.001,0.001,NW Demo Object
0.001,-0.001,SE Demo Object
-0.001,-0.001,SW Demo Object

#Far north
70.662690, 23.680671,Hammerfest
70.666139, 23.661677,Hammerfest Breakwater
70.664323, 23.686288,Hammerfest Pier

# Valid Polygon colors: WHITE, BLUE, ORANGE, BLACK (black actually displays as light gray)
# Closed Polygons are filled, open Polygons are line segments. A Polygon is closed if
# the final coordinate is exactly the same as the first coordinate.

# Polygons in Wayzata Bay of Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, near Cerulean's offices
#POLYGON,BLACK,44.962203,-93.498494,44.964658,-93.498902,44.965741,-93.503342,44.965579,-93.507451,44.968070,-93.510487,44.968961,-93.512507,44.969650,-93.515430,44.969599,-93.516838,44.969241,-93.518010,44.968935,-93.517956,44.968565,-93.520013,44.963867,-93.525372,44.969360,-93.531547,44.975848,-93.523636,44.975848,-93.494240,44.962203,-93.498494
#POLYGON,ORANGE,44.962343,-93.515935,44.961062,-93.516761,44.959956,-93.515623,44.962114,-93.513863,44.962343,-93.515935
#POLYGON,BLUE,44.968832,-93.518685,44.968945,-93.517913,44.969230,-93.518086,44.969616,-93.516829,44.969612,-93.516073,44.969677,-93.515434,44.969502,-93.515499,44.969316,-93.516153,44.969107,-93.516582,44.968790,-93.517566,44.968484,-93.517490,44.968323,-93.518522,44.968832,-93.518685

Map Display -- DVL Dead Reckoning Test over 1500 Meter Course

The images on the next page are map displays of two DVL sorties of about 1500 meters. The total accumulated error is about 1.6% and 2.1% of total distance traveled. These images were not cherry-picked, but you should not expect to always achieve that accuracy.

The red trace is DVL dead reckoning with the sensor head mounted on a sting on the Cerulean RV Helter Skelter (see photos below). The green trace is ground truth from a GPS sitting about 1 meter away from the sting.

The course was over muck bottom with water ranging from 2 meters to 17 meters deep. There was submerged vegetation for about 25% of the course.

Satellite Imagery

When operating in littoral areas the DVL Map window can load and display satellite images, either loaded on-the-fly from the internet (if you have internet access) or satellite image data cached ahead of time. It can do the same when you are in the deep ocean, but the images are, well, the ocean, so not that useful. Images are loaded from Google using Cerulean’s Google map API key. Google does not serve images at any useful level of detail for many parts of the ocean.

Radio buttons on the map control panel select the type of imagery to use. This defaults to “none.”

If desired, images are cached in a folder on your desktop called “DVLMapImageCache.” Each tile uses roughly 500 KB of disk space. Controls on the map control panel allow you to select the number of tiles horizontally and vertically, and the zoom level (resolution) for each cache operation. Multiple areas can be cached, and multiple levels of zoom (resolution) are also possible. Cached images are drawn first, and any known points or polygons will plot on top of the image.

The following screen snips illustrate the key aspects of the imagery feature.

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