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 designed to let underwater drones estimate their position where GPS is unavailable. In underwater monitoring, knowing where data was captured is crucial, but common DVL-based approaches are costly, creating a high barrier for individuals and small teams. We combine visual-inertial odometry (VIO) using a camera and IMU with depth sensing to achieve practical positioning with more accessible hardware.

We evaluated the system under real operating conditions, including refractive distortion correction and turning maneuvers, which led to this recognition.