Beyond Shallow-Water Photorealism: Physically and Sensor-Grounded Simulation for Deep-Sea Robotics

Abstract:Many recent underwater simulators emphasize visual realism at the expense of physical fidelity, focusing on shallow-water effects with limited relevance in deep-water environments and high computational cost. In this work, we shift the focus toward deep-sea physical and sensor realism. We present a physics- and sensor-grounded extension of the Stonefish simulator that augments its hydrodynamic models with stochastic IMU and DVL drift, magnetometer disturbances, higher-order hydrodynamics, terramechanics, pressure-driven environmental variability, and physically based underwater optics. These additions are designed to better capture the forces and measurements shaping the behavior of deep-ocean AUVs, ROVs, landers, ASVs, and gliders, while remaining compatible with real-time simulation. This work advances underwater simulation toward more representative deep-sea operating conditions, which is particularly relevant for long-duration navigation and learning-based autonomy, where inaccurate sensor and environmental models introduce non-physical artifacts and overly optimistic performance. While challenges remain, including complex fluid-structure interactions and full environmental stochasticity, the proposed framework provides a practical foundation for navigation, perception, and autonomy research under deep-sea conditions.

Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2608.26888 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2608.26888v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.26888 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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