Document

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Sanat A. Talmaki Vineet R. Kamat Suyang Dong Associate Professor

Graduate Students

Construction Engineering and Management Program Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Michigan

Improving Safety in Urban Excavation with Mobile Information and Visualization Technologies

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Presentation Goals

Appreciate the national magnitude of the safety and economic implications of accidents involving excavators striking buried utilities due to imperfect locating or operator errors.

Understand the role mobile IT and advanced visualization techniques can play to dramatically reduce the occurrence of excavator-utility collisions in urban environments.

Appreciate the significance of your role as a utility owner, excavation contractor, equipment manufacturer, or one-call utility locator in capitalizing on technological solutions to reduce the occurrence of accidents involving excavator-utility collisions.

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Damage to Underground Utilities during Excavation has been a Long-Standing Problem with Significant Economic and Safety

Implications

  Electricity   Gas

  Water

  Sewer   Petroleum

  Telephone

  Cable TV

  Fiber Optic (data)

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Problem Description

Damage to underground utilities during excavation has historically been a leading cause of Serious Incidents, which include fatalities and injuries. (Source: PHMSA Gas Distribution Filtered Incidents File - April 15, 2009)

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"  Gas Distribution Statistics

2004-2007:

  Total fatalities = 52

  Total injuries = 132

  Total damage to property = $612 million

  Total value of gas lost =

$7 million

Problem Description

Cary, NC (October 11, 2007) A drilling contractor hit a natural gas line that burned out of control for 6 hours, closing a major roadway intersection and forcing the evacuation of nearby businesses.

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Source: PHMSA Gas Distribution Filtered Incidents File- April 15, 2009, http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/

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Problem Description

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Source: US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

Year No. of accidents

Fatalities Injuries Property Damage ($)

2007 119 4 10 56,351,995 2008 139 2 2 113,534,182

2009 84 4 5 36,181,227

Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Operators Accident Statistics

Firefighters stand in front of flames rising from a natural gas pipeline that exploded in southwestern Moscow, Flames soared more than 100 meters into the sky. May 2009.

Hazardous Liquids Distribution Statistics 2007-2009:

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"  One-Call Utility Location System to act as clearing house for all buried utility locations

"  Avoid third-party damage to existing underground utilities due to unknown or mislocated utilities.

"  Utility location in terms of size, depth and utility materials that can be detected in presence of utility congestion.

Current Practices of Incident Prevention

Current practice of calling MISS DIG and marking utilities on surface using spray paint

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Current Field Process with One-Call Locator System

Current practice of calling MISS DIG and marking utilities on surface using spray paint

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MISS DIG informs member company

Excavator calls MISS DIG Office

Member Company sends out

Field Locator Approximate Horizontal

Location marked with stakes/paint/

flags

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Excavator Operator’s View

The surface markings and spray paint are long gone!

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Interface for the collision avoidance augmented reality system

Excavator Operator First-Person View – Visual Simulation

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Virtual Reality Visualization

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Milgrim’s Reality-Virtuality Continuum

Virtual Reality Versus Augmented Reality

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Augmented Reality Visualization

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Integrated Collision Avoidance Framework

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Integrated Collision Avoidance Framework Components

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Technical Approach and System Components

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Augmented Reality (AR)

Global Positioning

System (GPS)

Geophysical Technologies

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Technical Approach

Ground Penetrating Radar

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Status of Archived As-Built Information

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"   Significant percentage of buried utility data is archived on paper drawings (or scanned drawings, e.g. PDF)

  Preprocessing to create GIS map and identify utility lines.

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Pre-Processing of Archived As-Built Information

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Original Drawing

Converted to GIS Shapefiles

Converted to 3D Models

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Global Positioning

System (GPS)



Technical Approach


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GPS and Tilt Sensors to Track Digging Implement in Real-Time

Trimble

Radio Signal Transmitter

RTK Base Antenna

RTK Base receiver

Radio Signal Receiver

RTK Rover Antenna

Tilt Sensor

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Collision Avoidance by Tracking Digging Implement in Real-Time

Not in range 5 feet

1 foot

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Global Positioning

System (GPS)



Technical Approach


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First (Operator) and Third-Person Augmented Reality Visualization

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Developed mobile computing backpack

Prototype for Third-Person Augmented Reality Visualization

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"   The proposed technical approach encompasses 3 principal ideas:

  Tracking of excavator’s digging implement along with approximate sensing of buried utility locations using geophysical technologies

  Visualization of 3D GIS buried utilities data in real-time using Augmented Reality

  Implementation of Collision Avoidance System based on proximity queries between excavator’s current location and known location of utilities buried in the vicinity

Summary of Technical Approach

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"   Accidents involving hits to buried utility lines cause:

  Interruption to daily life and commerce

  Physical danger to workers, bystanders and nearby buildings.

"   Costs are borne by-

  Contractor

  Locating Company

  Utility Providers

  Insurance Companies

  Affected Public

  Business Owners

"   Thus it is a long-standing societal problem that deserves attention

Conclusion - Economic and Safety Implications

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Recently, a construction crew driving piles for a new garage accidently crushed a high voltage underground electric cable serving Newark International Airport’s three passenger terminals. Hundreds of flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers were left stranded.

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  U.S. National Science Foundation •  The presented work is supported by the US National Science

Foundation (NSF) through grants CMMI-0448762 and CMMI- 0726493. NSF’s support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

  DTE Energy Company •  Mr. Ronnie May •  Mr. James DeKimpe, Mr. William Terrasi •  Mr. John Squires, Mr. Steven Facine •  Mr. Roger Lane

  FIATECH •  Ms. Nicole Testa Boston •  Dr. Sami Kazi, VTT

Acknowledgments

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More Information

Vineet R. Kamat [email protected]

http://pathfinder.engin.umich.edu

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