Many diving investigations have been carried out and a lot of images, videos etc., have been obtained in the bottom of caldera of Suiyo Seamount. However, the relative positions of each dive are usually uncertain. It is probably due to low accuracy of acoustic positioning in the condition that the caldera bottom is surrounded by walls.
In the JAMSTEC research vessel "NATSUSHIMA" cruise NT03-14, reconstructed positions from detailed video data were compared with SSBL positions, when deep sea hydrophone array system was settled on the sea bottom by ROV "Hyper-Dolphin".
The following conditions are necessary to obtain a position of the sea bottom from the video record.
1. All images are clear and have simple structures.
2. The sea floor is expected to be almost flat.
3. No change in the direction or magnification of the camera image.
4. It is required for the survey line to return to the original point at least once in one trial, or to cross itself.

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In the deep-sea geological survey, good survey results are difficult to obtain by a conventional surface-towed acoustic survey system, because the horizontal resolution is limited due to the long distance between the sensor and the target (seafloor). In order to improve the horizontal resolution, a deep-tow system, which tows the sensor in the vicinity of seafloor, is most practical, and many such systems have been developed and used until today. It is not easy, however, to carry out a high-density survey in a small area by maneuvering the towing body altitude sufficiently close to the seafloor with rugged topography. A ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) can be used to solve this problem. The ROV makes a high-density 2D survey feasible because of its maneuverability, although a long-distance survey is difficult with it. Accordingly, we have developed an acoustic survey system installed on a ROV. The system named DAIPACK (Deep-sea Acoustic Imaging Package) consists of (1) a deep-sea sub-bottom profiler and (2) a deep-sea sidescan sonar.
(1) Deep-sea sub-bottom profiler
A light-weight and compact sub-bottom profiler for shallow water was chosen to improve and repackage for the deep sea usage. The system is composed of three units; a transducer, an electronic unit and a notebook computer for system control and data acquisition. The source frequency is 10kHz. To convert the system for the deep sea, the transducer was exchanged for the deep sea model, and the electronic unit was improved accordingly. The electronic unit and the notebook computer were installed in a spherical pressure vessel.
(2) Deep-sea sidescan sonar
We remodeled a compact shallow sea sidescan sonar(water depth limitation is 30m ) into a deep sea one. This sidescan sonar is composed of a sonar towfish (transducers and an electronic unit ), a cable and a notebook computer (data processor). To accommodate in the deep water, the transducers were remodeled into a high pressure resistance type, and the electronic unit and the computer unit were stored in a spherical pressure vessel. The frequency output of the sidescan sonar is 330kHz, and the ranging distance is variable from 15m to 120m (one side).

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