Accurate Reconstruction and Analysis of Access Wells using a Hybrid Depth/Color Device

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Infrastructel is an engineering consulting firm operating in Quebec. One type of projects that they are workingon are in surveying access wells. Access wells are underground concrete spaces used by utility companies tostore maintain and update urban infrastructure such as power lines, internet lines, etc. These undergroundspaces are hazardous and only accessible to specially trained engineers. Moreover, access to these spaces tendto also impede traffic and create other public inconveniences. Therefore, technologies to reduce the access tothese wells to a minimum are needed. Infrastructel has developed in 2014 a technology that minimizes theaccess time to the access well by taking 360 degree pictures of the well and streaming it back to the officewhere it can be analyzed remotely in an offline fashion. Engineers of Infrastructel have won a prestigiousengineering award in Quebec for this technology that is now widely used in the industry. However, oneimportant limitation is that while the 360 degree imagery allows qualitative visual analysis of the wells, it israther difficult to obtain quantitative information such as distance measurements. In this project we develop anovel technology based on inexpensive hybrid cameras (depth plus colour) to acquire and stream both 360imagery of the well along with geometric (point cloud) information. This will enable the engineers to remotelyanalyze the scene both visually, say crack identification, and quantitatively through distance measurements, onthe point cloud.We will work closely with the company to incorporate the results into their products. This project is ofsignificant benefit to Canada. Currently, as pointed out by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself, the Canadianinfrastructure system is in dire need of maintenance and repair. This is made more complicated by lack ofskilled labor and efficient tools. This project goes a long way in facilitating this on-going demand by providinguseful and inexpensive tools in the hands of Canadian infrastructure engineers.