A Systematic Approach for Exploring Underground Environment Using LiDAR-Based System

Abstract

Agricultural projects in different parts of the world depend on underground water wells. Recently, there have been many unfortunate incidents in which children have died in abandoned underground wells. Providing topographical information for these wells is a prerequisite to protecting people from the dangers of falling into them, especially since most of these wells become buried over time. Many solutions have been developed recently, most with the aim of exploring these well areas. However, these systems suffer from several limitations, including high complexity, large size, or inefficiency. This paper focuses on the development of a smart exploration unit that is able to investigate underground well areas, build a 3D map, search for persons and animals, and determine the levels of oxygen and other gases. The exploration unit has been implemented and validated through several experiments using various experiment testbeds. The results proved the efficiency of the developed exploration unit, in terms of 3D modeling, searching, communication, and measuring the level of oxygen. The average accuracy of the 3D modeling function is approximately 95.5%. A benchmark has been presented for comparing our results with related works, and the comparison has proven the contributions and novelty of the proposed system’s results.