Reconciling Discrepancies between Documented and Actual Locations of Pipeline Networks

Municipal water systems can be major beneficiaries of Digital Water Services: a combination of source monitoring, production and quality management, leak detection, water balance and network monitoring/modeling and process control. In order to be able to deploy these services at large scale and low cost, the first step is to create a digital representation of the pipeline network. However, documentation of pipeline networks are not always kept up-to-date, or sufficiently precise, therefore, said documentation must be validated or corrected by physical, on-site measurement and documentation.

Largely a manual process of measurement and photographic documentation, this first step represents significant time and human resource investment and is prone to errors. Head-mounted AR displays equipped with camera systems, SLAM (TOFL/LiDAR) and GPS sensors could speed up the process of documenting pipeline networks by performing volumetric capture of the exposed water network assets and interpolating the underground portions. Using the latest camera technologies on AR devices can validate geographic and dimensional data while eliminating or reducing errors.

This research explores the use of AR devices mounted with different camera and SLAM sensory systems using manual measurements as a baseline. The focus is not on end users but on the rapid and accurate capture of data about existing infrastructure.

Stakeholders

This research will be valuable to the operators of municipal water systems, waste management systems and the IT managers, field work force, and partners performing maintenance and repairs of utilities infrastructure.

Possible Methodologies

Initial lab testing of various volumetric capture solutions will evaluate candidate solutions, followed by in-field test comparing said solutions with physical ground truth. This will be supported by test of various data extraction methodologies.

Research Program

Leakage and issues with obstructed pipes are not unique to water utilities. The research techniques developed for this topic can be adapted for use in other types of utilities and industries where resources are sent using linear assets and infrastructure. The research platform could be commercialized into products or services to increase safety, reduce waste and optimize operations of infrastructure.

Miscellaneous Notes

In October 2019, research about an subset of this topic has been published in the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences.

Keywords

volumetric capture, utility asset management, digital water services, predictive water sources management, water supply, water treatment, well stimulation, well testing

Research Agenda Categories

Industries, Technology, Use Cases

Expected Impact Timeframe

Medium

Related Publications

Using the words in this topic description and Natural Language Processing analysis of publications in the AREA FindAR database, the references below have the highest number of matches with this topic:

• Padilha, V. L., de Oliveira, F. H., Proverbs, D., & Fuchter, S. K. (2019). Innovative Applications of VR: Flash-flood control and monitoring. 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Measurement and Control in Robotics (ISMCR).
• Hossain, S. A., Islam, R., Rahman, S., & Nayeem, S. (2020). A Layered Framework for Virtual Guidance to Network Maintenance Based on Augmented Reality. IT Convergence and Security, 111-121.
• Li, J., & Nguyen, C. (2019). Realtime Water-Hazard Detection and Visualisation for Autonomous Navigation and Advanced Driving Assistance. 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct).
• Koutitas, G., Jabez, J., Grohman, C., Radhakrishna, C., Siddaraju, V., & Jadon, S. (2018). Demo/poster abstract: XReality research lab – Augmented reality meets Internet of Things. IEEE INFOCOM 2018 – IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS).
• Szalay, M., Haja, D., Doka, J., Sonkoly, B., & Toka, L. (2019). Demo Abstract: Turning OpenStack into a Fog Orchestrator. IEEE INFOCOM 2019 – IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS).

More publications can be explored using the AREA FindAR research tool.

Author

Peter Orban, Christine Perey

Last Published (yyyy-mm-dd)

2021-08-31

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