Abstract
Automatic and accurate mapping and modeling of underground infrastructure has become indispensable for several important tasks ranging from urban planning and construction to safety and hazard mitigation. However, this offers several technical and operational challenges. The aim of this work is to develop a portable automated mapping solution for the 3D mapping and modeling of underground pipe networks during renovation and installation work when the infrastructure is being laid down in open trenches. The system is used to scan the trench and then the 3D scans obtained from the system are registered together to form a 3D point cloud of the trench containing the pipe network using a modified global ICP (iterative closest point) method. In the 3D point cloud, pipe-like structures are segmented using fuzzy C-means clustering and then modeled using a nested MSAC (M-estimator SAmpling Consensus) algorithm. The proposed method is evaluated on real data pertaining to three different sites, containing several different types of pipes. We report an overall registration error of less than , an overall segmentation accuracy of and an overall modeling error of less than . The evaluated results not only demonstrate the efficacy but also the suitability of the proposed solution.
Highlights
The underground space in urban areas has played an important role in urban development over recent years
We present a portable, automated mapping solution for the 3D mapping and modeling of underground pipe networks during renovation and installation work, when the infrastructure is being laid down in open trenches
The proposed method is evaluated on real data from three different sites, containing several different types of pipes
Summary
The underground space in urban areas has played an important role in urban development over recent years. Underground utilities are critical infrastructure for all modern cities They carry drinking water, storm water, sewage, natural gas, electric power, telecommunications, etc. The pipes and cables in the underground networks may well be conceptually simple, but they are narrow objects of different sizes, spanned over large geographical areas and made of multiple segments For these very reasons the use of 3D technology from different scanning angles is more suited for such a task, as it allows a more accurate 3D mapping and modeling of the complex infrastructure. Several new regulations introduced recently in major cities impose a class-A geo-referencing/mapping (accuracy of 10 cm on each axis) of all the sensitive underground networks in urban areas This is essential, especially during construction and renovation tasks, where digging in Sensors 2019, 19, 5345; doi:10.3390/s19245345 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
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