Development of a distributed MR-IoT method for operations and maintenance of underground pipeline network

Abstract

The underground pipeline network (UPN) is an essential infrastructure and plays an irreplaceable role in national defense and urban activities. The complexity of structural environment and management makes its operation and maintenance difficult. To solve this problem, a distributed mixed reality (MR) and internet of things (IoT) system is developed through game thinking. Firstly, digital models are created based on design drawings and real-world environments, and then an MR system for the UPN is built by the game engine and the OpenXR platform. Secondly, an IoT cloud platform is built to connect with the MR system based on the API sets and cloud services; the data communication between sensors and MR devices is linked with the Socket method, and the data filtering model is constructed by the Kalman algorithm to realize the information exchange between the field workers and the backend managers. Finally, the National Center for Materials Service Safety at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (NCMS_USTB) is used as the experimental site to test this system, and its underground sewage and rainwater pipeline network are used to simulate the key problems in the operation and maintenance. The effect of the application shows that there is potential technical complementarity between the MR and IoT, and the distributed MR-IoT approach can be used as a new technical reference for the operation and maintenance of the UPN.