REAL-TIME MAGNETIC ANOMALY DETECTION

To minimize the excavation damage of underground pipelines, we propose to provide real-time feedback to operators by monitoring the distance information from the underground pipeline. Despite multiple efforts to locate underground ferromagnetic pipelines using the magnetic anomaly detection, it has not been implemented in real-time excavation operations due to low signal-to-noise ratios, unknown external magnetic interference, and high computational power. To address these limitations, we propose an approach to locating a custom-designed wireless sensor system on the excavator bucket to increase accuracy of real-time distance estimation with efficient external magnetic interference cancellation.

Sensor-based Proximity Detection

Overview of the Real-time ferromagnetic Pipeline Detection System (RPDS) that utilizes Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) to locate the hidden underground ferromagnetic objects with external magnetic interference (EMI) cancellation.Actual wireless multi-sensor recording hardware of the RPDS: (a) a custom-designed control unit, (b) inertial-measurement unit (IMU) modules, (c) a Li-poly rechargeable battery, and (d) a Zigbee wireless transceiver.

Actual wireless multi-sensor recording hardware of the RPDS: (a) a custom-designed control unit, (b) inertial-measurement unit (IMU) modules, (c) a Li-poly rechargeable battery, and (d) a Zigbee wireless transceiver.

Experimental setup to emulate the construction site using 14:1 scaled metal excavator model. The series of excavation movements for the distance estimation: (a)-(b)-(c)-(a) as a trial. (d) The nearest distance between the sensor and the pipeline was applied to estimate the distance from the data collection.

VR-based Sensory Augmentation