Portable image-based high performance mobile mapping system in underground environments. System configuration and performance evalutation.

Abstract

The progression in urbanization increases the need for different types of underground infrastructure. Consequently, infrastructure and life cycle management are rapidly gaining in importance. Mobile reality capturing systems and cloud-based services exploiting georeferenced metric 3D imagery are already extensively used for infrastructure management in outdoor environments. These services minimise dangerous and expensive field visits or measurement campaigns. In this paper, we introduce the BIMAGE Backpack, a portable image-based mobile mapping system for 3D data acquisition in indoor environments. The system consists of a multi-head panorama camera, two multi-profile laser scanners and an inertial measurement unit. With this system, we carried out underground measurement campaigns in the Hagerbach Test Gallery, located in Flums Hochwiese, Switzerland. For our performance evaluations in two different tunnel sections, we employed LiDAR SLAM as well as advanced image-based georeferencing. The obtained absolute accuracies were in the range from 6.2 to 7.4 cm. The relative accuracy, which for many applications is even more important, was in the range of 2–6 mm. These figures demonstrate an accuracy improvement of the subsequent image-based georeferencing over LiDAR SLAM by about an order of magnitude. The investigations show the application potential of image-based portable mobile mapping systems for infrastructure inventory and management in large underground facilities.