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

Instructel是一家在魁北克运营的工程咨询公司。他们正在从事的一类项目是勘测进入井。出入井是公用事业公司用来储存、维护和更新城市基础设施的地下混凝土空间，如电力线、互联网线路等。这些地下空间是危险的，只有经过专门培训的工程师才能进入。此外，进入这些空间还会阻碍交通，并造成其他公共不便。因此，需要将进入这些油井的途径减少到最低限度的技术。Instructel在2014年开发了一项技术，通过拍摄油井的360度照片并将其传输回办公室，以线下方式进行远程分析，从而最大限度地缩短了进入油井的时间。Infrstructel的工程师因这项目前在行业中广泛应用的技术而在魁北克获得了享有盛誉的工程奖。然而，一个重要的限制是，虽然360度图像允许对油井进行定性的视觉分析，但很难获得诸如距离测量等定量信息。在这个项目中，我们开发了一种基于廉价混合相机(深度加彩色)的新技术，以获取和传输油井的360图像以及几何(点云)信息。这将使工程师能够对现场进行远程分析，既可以直观地识别裂缝，也可以通过距离测量对点云进行定量分析。我们将与公司密切合作，将结果纳入他们的产品中。这个项目对加拿大有很大的好处。目前，正如贾斯汀·特鲁多总理本人指出的那样，加拿大的基础设施系统迫切需要维护和维修。由于缺乏熟练的劳动力和有效的工具，这一点变得更加复杂。该项目通过向加拿大基础设施工程师提供有用且廉价的工具，大大促进了这种持续的需求。

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.