Reveal launches new visualisation tool for the underground

The infrastructure industry’s knowledge of the location of underground utilities such as water pipes, cables, and ducts is often inaccurate and incomplete, due to the age of the utilities and decades of poor record management. Techniques such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) can be used to detect these utilities up to five metres underground, but traditionally, the analysis of this raw radar data requires technical expertise, extended wait times, and is expensive to produce.

That’s why Reveal has developed, Underdots. 

Image: An Underdots detection of a chamber with lateral pipe connections underneath a road corridor

What is Underdots?

Underdots is Reveal's revolutionary software product designed to slash wait times for usable data depictions from ground-penetrating radar (GPR) units from months to mere hours. An online data processing service transforms multi-channel GPR data into a 3D point-cloud visualization, providing designers with rapid insights into the intensity and depth of radar reflections, and helping to identify underground utilities in expansive areas. 

The Underdots point cloud visualization is a collection of clustered dots plotted in a 3D GIS environment that shows the intensity and depth of radar reflections. This creates an intuitive 3D model that gives designers clear indications of the presence or absence of unseen utilities. In addition, project managers can compare the Underdots visualization to existing utility plans to determine where further invasive investigations, such as potholing should be conducted, as well ‘green-flagging’ regions where the Underdots detections match the expected findings. 

Underdots supports data exports from popular multi-channel GPR systems including Kontur DX, Mala Mira and IDS Stream UP/X. Simply upload data at www.underdots.com and you will receive a unique link to your point cloud that can be shared with all project stakeholders. 

Case Study: Let’s Get Wellington Moving Underdots Revelations 

Let’s Get Wellington Moving is a joint initiative between central and local governments in the Wellington area: Waka Kotahi, the New Zealand Transport Agency, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Wellington City Council. The project sought to address congestion and enhance transportation efficiency in the Wellington region, and given the major infrastructure upgrades being mooted, a comprehensive understanding of the existing utility infrastructure beneath the city streets was needed.  

As part of the initial deliverables, the Underdots software was utilized to rapidly process data sets collected from our vehicle-mounted multi-channel ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Once the data is processed, Underdots produces a visualization of detections through clusters of coloured dots plotted in a 3D map environment that shows the intensity and depth of radar reflections, which can reveal the presence or absence of underground utilities in large areas. 

The data collected from the city centre revealed a series of previously unknown detections, such as reinforced concrete and historic tram tracks. As a result of these early detections, variations were made to the project to expand the surveying area and document the full extent of the obstructions. After the full investigation, Underdots successfully identified 47,095sqm of reinforced concrete and 29,600m buried tram tracks. If left undetected, the impact on the project would have resulted in major delays, disruption to local businesses, and commuter routes. Project managers would have been required to take reactive action in resource management and rework construction plans, as the reinforced concrete requires specialist heavy machinery to break through; a similar process was required for removing sections of the remaining tram track rails.

In this case, due to the early detection provided by Underdots, project designers were able to adjust plans accordingly before implementing invasive and publicly disruptive work.  

Image: Underdots detections of hazardous underground anomalies that were previously undocumented

Underdots is available now!

If you wish to learn more watch the video below and head to reveal.nz/underdots to upload your data. 

#Underdots #LookDeeper #UtilityMapping #Innovation #Underdotsatwork