8 research outputs found

    Self-Organized Model Fitting Method for Railway Structures Monitoring Using LiDAR Point Cloud

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    Mobile laser scanning (MLS) has been successfully used for infrastructure monitoring apt to its fine accuracy and higher point density, which is favorable for object reconstruction. The massive data size, computational time, wider spatial distribution and feature extraction become a challenging task for 3D point data processing with MLS point cloud receives from terrestrial structures such as buildings, roads and railway tracks. In this paper, we propose a new approach to detect the structures in-line with railway track geometry such as railway crossings, turnouts and quantitatively estimate their dimensions and spatial location by iteratively applying a vertical slice to point cloud data for long distance laser measurement. The rectangular vertical slices were defined and their boundary coordinates were estimated based on a geometrical method. Estimated vertical slice boundaries were iteratively used to evaluate the point density of each vertical slice along with a cross-track direction of the railway line. Those point densities were further analyzed to detect the railway line track objects by their shape and spatial location along with the rail bed. Herein, the survey dataset is used as a dictionary to preidentify the spatial location of the object and then as an accurate estimation for the rail-track, by estimating the gauge corner (GC) from dense point cloud. The proposed method has shown a significant improvement in the rail-track extraction process, which becomes a challenge for existing remote sensing technologies. This adaptive object detection method can be used to identify the railway track structures prior to the railway track extraction, which allows in finding the GC position precisely. Further, it is based on the parallelism of the railway track, which is distinct from conventional railway track extraction methods. Therefore it does not require any inertial measurements along with the MLS survey and can be applied with less background information of the observed MLS point cloud. The proposed algorithm was tested for the MLS data set acquired during the pilot project collaborated with West Japan Railway Company. The results indicate 100% accuracy for railway structure detection and enhance the GC extraction for railway structure monitoring

    Web GIS to Identify the Problematic Mobile Signal Clusters

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    Mobile communications has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the world today. With the technological advancement, mobile communication has subjected to many upgrades such as 2G, 3G, 4G. The question of “Does a customer get the expected capabilities from it? ” is not answered yet. Even though, the subscribers of all operators pay almost equal charges per minute, most of the time, they do not get the real benefit from the service. At the moment there is no any location based system to capture the availability of signal receiving levels (specially 3G and 4G signal for Dongles), when a customer sit in front of the marketing person, asking to provide a new connection. What most of the customers do is to use the equipment for few days and return them with a complaint of malfunction in case of signal unavailability. In this study geostatistical analysis was carried out by the method of Inverse distance weighting and the interpolated maps were generated using ArcMap 10. Maps were uploaded to the map server, with standard color ramp. Thereby, the network users can get a better idea about the variation of mobile signal receiving level in a particular location. The developed web based GIS (Geographic Information Systems) system provides the capability of accessing the mobile signal levels remotely in an online manner prior to dealing with a particular customer. Analysis of receiving signal level variation helps to find clusters which have low signal levels than expected. Also, further investigation can be carried out to determine the frequently changing network clusters against a relevant time domain

    Implementation and configuration of GB-SAR for landslide monitoring: case study in Minami-Aso, Kumamoto

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    In this paper, the applicability of ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR) as an early warning system for landslide monitoring is discussed. The effectiveness of the differential interferometric SAR (DInSAR) technique used in GB-SAR depends strongly on the geography of the monitored location. Therefore, an assessment of the system compatibility to select the most appropriate remote monitoring method is essential prior to any hardware implementation. In the preliminary part of this study, a 3D model was created using a LiDAR survey, and proposed locations for GB-SAR installation were examined. A 3D simulation was carried out to estimate the illumination from each of the proposed GB-SAR locations. The proposed model increased the efficiency of the GB-SAR positioning by minimising installation cost and time. Hardware configuration parameters, such as platform height, maximum range, and the direction and view angle of the radar line of sight were estimated by considering the optimum reflected power and ground illumination. Unlike on flat terrain, deployment of GB-SAR in a mountainous area is challenging because of surface anomalies and continuous changes in meteorological parameters, such as atmospheric temperature, pressure and relative humidity. In this study, the experimental site was located 3 km from the Aso volcano, and the weather conditions in the Aso caldera became a critical factor in accurately estimating the interferometric phase. The presence of atmospheric artefacts also compromises the applicability of the classical DInSAR technique. Here, we minimised the atmospheric phase screen by estimating the optimum data acquisition interval from GB-SAR monitoring under extreme weather conditions. The developed methodologies were then used to design a new landslide early warning system that measures real-time displacement over an area of 1 km2 within 10 s of scanning. This fully automatic monitoring system updates every 15 min and presents displacement information in a 3D interface. The system we have developed has been deployed for continuous monitoring of the mountainous environment of a road reconstruction site in Minami-Aso, Kumamoto, Japan where a large-scale landslide was triggered following the Kumamoto earthquake in 2016
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