Selected and Recognized as Super Creator in Mitou Junior 2025

At Mitou Junior 2025, Shintaro Matsumoto of AquaWiz was selected for the project "UmiNavi" and recognized as a Super Creator.

UmiNavi is a mechanism that enables underwater drones to estimate their own position even in environments where GPS cannot be used underwater. While "where the data was acquired" becomes important in underwater observation, the mainstream method using acoustic sensors (DVL) tends to be expensive, creating a high barrier for individual developers and small teams. Therefore, we are developing a system that combines Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) using cameras and IMU with depth sensor information, aiming for practical self-position estimation with a relatively accessible configuration.

The fact that we have repeatedly designed and evaluated with actual operation in mind, including camera distortion correction due to underwater-specific refraction and verification under driving conditions including turning, was evaluated and led to this recognition.