Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities

Objective and Methods The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system, enjoying the advantages of high resolution and non-contact detection, is applicable to the detection of water accumulation in coal seams and goaves in mines. Therefore, this study proposed a rapid de...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ying WANG, Chenchen SUN, Lu ZHANG, Yifei CHEN, Song LU, Feng ZHOU
Format: Article
Language:zho
Published: Editorial Office of Coal Geology & Exploration 2025-05-01
Series:Meitian dizhi yu kantan
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mtdzykt.com/article/doi/10.12363/issn.1001-1986.24.12.0817
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850123122709102592
author Ying WANG
Chenchen SUN
Lu ZHANG
Yifei CHEN
Song LU
Feng ZHOU
author_facet Ying WANG
Chenchen SUN
Lu ZHANG
Yifei CHEN
Song LU
Feng ZHOU
author_sort Ying WANG
collection DOAJ
description Objective and Methods The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system, enjoying the advantages of high resolution and non-contact detection, is applicable to the detection of water accumulation in coal seams and goaves in mines. Therefore, this study proposed a rapid detection method based on a UAV-borne air-coupled GPR system to enhance the exploration efficiency of mining areas and reduce the time and risks of manual explorations. Given the limitations of the test scenarios in actual coal mines, this study investigated the water body of the Fanxiong reservoir in Ezhou City and surrounding drainage culverts for equivalent validation, aiming to assess the application potential of the proposed UAV-borne GPR system in water depth and cavity detection. Additionally, to improve the quality of signals collected using the system, singular value decomposition and constant proportional gain technique were employed to enhance the reflected signals from the water bottom and culverts. Results and Conclusions The experimental results indicate that the proposed UAV-borne GPR system could effectively detect the trend in the water depth in the Fanxiong reservoir (maximum depth: 6 m) and identify the reflected signals from the drainage culverts with a diameter of 1 m (distance from the culvert top to road surface: 1 m). This demonstrates the reliability and effectiveness of the system in water body and cavity detection. Compared to traditional methods, the data processing method based on the proposed UAV-borne GPR system can significantly enhance the reflected signals from the water bottom and culverts. Specifically, the entropy value and elevated root mean square (RMS) contrast of the processed B-scan signals increased by 12.7% (from 3.70 to 4.17) and 55% (from 0.11 to 0.17), respectively. This led to improved identifiability of waveform features, as well as enhanced accuracy and intuitiveness of data interpretation and analysis. As the UAV flight altitude increased from 2 m to 4 m, the intensity of signals from the water bottom was significantly attenuated (RMS contrast decreasing from 0.27 to 0.22), and the radii of curvature of the culverts’ reflection curves decreased. The results of this study will provide a theoretical basis for detecting the water accumulation areas and goaves in coal mines using a UAV-borne GPR system.
format Article
id doaj-art-dfe55c80bc234d07a8a8538bcf512cf2
institution OA Journals
issn 1001-1986
language zho
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher Editorial Office of Coal Geology & Exploration
record_format Article
series Meitian dizhi yu kantan
spelling doaj-art-dfe55c80bc234d07a8a8538bcf512cf22025-08-20T02:34:40ZzhoEditorial Office of Coal Geology & ExplorationMeitian dizhi yu kantan1001-19862025-05-0153520721610.12363/issn.1001-1986.24.12.081724-12-0817wangyingApplication of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavitiesYing WANG0Chenchen SUN1Lu ZHANG2Yifei CHEN3Song LU4Feng ZHOU5Key Laboratory of Geological Survey and Evaluation of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, ChinaKey Laboratory of Geological Survey and Evaluation of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, ChinaKey Laboratory of Geological Survey and Evaluation of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, ChinaKey Laboratory of Geological Survey and Evaluation of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, ChinaChina Railway Academy Group Co., Ltd., Chengdu 610032, ChinaKey Laboratory of Geological Survey and Evaluation of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, ChinaObjective and Methods The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system, enjoying the advantages of high resolution and non-contact detection, is applicable to the detection of water accumulation in coal seams and goaves in mines. Therefore, this study proposed a rapid detection method based on a UAV-borne air-coupled GPR system to enhance the exploration efficiency of mining areas and reduce the time and risks of manual explorations. Given the limitations of the test scenarios in actual coal mines, this study investigated the water body of the Fanxiong reservoir in Ezhou City and surrounding drainage culverts for equivalent validation, aiming to assess the application potential of the proposed UAV-borne GPR system in water depth and cavity detection. Additionally, to improve the quality of signals collected using the system, singular value decomposition and constant proportional gain technique were employed to enhance the reflected signals from the water bottom and culverts. Results and Conclusions The experimental results indicate that the proposed UAV-borne GPR system could effectively detect the trend in the water depth in the Fanxiong reservoir (maximum depth: 6 m) and identify the reflected signals from the drainage culverts with a diameter of 1 m (distance from the culvert top to road surface: 1 m). This demonstrates the reliability and effectiveness of the system in water body and cavity detection. Compared to traditional methods, the data processing method based on the proposed UAV-borne GPR system can significantly enhance the reflected signals from the water bottom and culverts. Specifically, the entropy value and elevated root mean square (RMS) contrast of the processed B-scan signals increased by 12.7% (from 3.70 to 4.17) and 55% (from 0.11 to 0.17), respectively. This led to improved identifiability of waveform features, as well as enhanced accuracy and intuitiveness of data interpretation and analysis. As the UAV flight altitude increased from 2 m to 4 m, the intensity of signals from the water bottom was significantly attenuated (RMS contrast decreasing from 0.27 to 0.22), and the radii of curvature of the culverts’ reflection curves decreased. The results of this study will provide a theoretical basis for detecting the water accumulation areas and goaves in coal mines using a UAV-borne GPR system.http://www.mtdzykt.com/article/doi/10.12363/issn.1001-1986.24.12.0817unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)ground-penetrating radar (gpr)singular value decomposition (svd)water accumulation in coal seamsgoaf detection
spellingShingle Ying WANG
Chenchen SUN
Lu ZHANG
Yifei CHEN
Song LU
Feng ZHOU
Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
Meitian dizhi yu kantan
unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)
ground-penetrating radar (gpr)
singular value decomposition (svd)
water accumulation in coal seams
goaf detection
title Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
title_full Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
title_fullStr Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
title_full_unstemmed Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
title_short Application of a UAV-borne GPR system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
title_sort application of a uav borne gpr system in the detection of water bodies and cavities
topic unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)
ground-penetrating radar (gpr)
singular value decomposition (svd)
water accumulation in coal seams
goaf detection
url http://www.mtdzykt.com/article/doi/10.12363/issn.1001-1986.24.12.0817
work_keys_str_mv AT yingwang applicationofauavbornegprsysteminthedetectionofwaterbodiesandcavities
AT chenchensun applicationofauavbornegprsysteminthedetectionofwaterbodiesandcavities
AT luzhang applicationofauavbornegprsysteminthedetectionofwaterbodiesandcavities
AT yifeichen applicationofauavbornegprsysteminthedetectionofwaterbodiesandcavities
AT songlu applicationofauavbornegprsysteminthedetectionofwaterbodiesandcavities
AT fengzhou applicationofauavbornegprsysteminthedetectionofwaterbodiesandcavities