Yannik Steiniger

Dr.-Ing. Yannik Steiniger is a researcher at the DLR Institute for the Protection of Maritime Infrastructures (DLR-MI), where he investigates deep learning applications for sonar image analysis. His work stems from collaborations with ATLAS Elektronik GmbH, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Wuppertal.

His research focuses on overcoming the scarcity of labeled sonar datasets by generating synthetic training data via transfer learning and GANs. He pioneered the use of transformers for seabed object detection in side-view sonar images, outperforming traditional signal processing approaches. Future projects aim to deploy these models on autonomous underwater vehicles for environmental cleanup tasks like hazardous material detection in the North and Baltic Seas.

Steiniger emphasizes expanding DLR-MI's hydroacoustic data analysis team to advance maritime AI capabilities. His work bridges academic research with practical applications in naval engineering and environmental monitoring.