Sewer Assessment with LiDAR, Motion tracking and Sensor Fusion project for Metropolitan Sewer District (City of Cincinnati)
Tim Davidson(Supervisor) , Gopal Pokharel(Research and Development Intern)
- MSD’s existing assessment robot only gets visuals and pipe length data.
- WWC unable to measure deformation or estimate wall loss.
- $$$ and tedious bureaucratic process to hire contractor from outside.
- In theory, can do in-house -- easier, timely, and cost-effective.
- Good lidar units are very expensive.
- Iot Integration (Arduino, sensors, Raspberry pi, serial communication, LiDAR)
- Data collection, helical 3D point cloud.
- Data export and processing using python libraries like Numpy, Pandas and Matplotlib.
- 3D mesh structure representation of point cloud with open source software (CloudCompare)
- Made wireless, power from powerbank (battery).
- As LiDAR unit moves thru space, sensor collection & export:
- distance from reference wall
- Accelerometer (x, y, z acceleration data)
- Gyroscope, (angle of attack – pitch, roll, yaw) and
- Magnetometer data to write sensor fusion algorithm
- Make an airtight 3d casing so that microcomputer will be waterproof.
- More work needed on sensor fusion algorithm to track realtime path.
- Better beacon/ultrasonic range finder for extended range for z-coordinates.
- Enhance the prototype to scale production.
- Work on a software application to collect and post-process data with few clicks.
Opensource for anyone to use and develop on top of it