February Event: Presentations
The MTU Annual Event took place in February 2010 and was widely deemed to be a great success. We are in the process of producing an event report which will be posted as soon as possible. In the meantime, here are a collection of the day’s presentations.
Keynote Speech – Jim Anspach, Civil Engineering Consultant and Chairman of ASCE
Outlining technology, procedures and latest research in the USA.
MTU Lecture Session – Phil Atkins, University of Birmingham
Explaining MTU’s advances in sensor development and thinking; bringing the focus back to the problems we face in the UK.
ORFEUS Lecture Session – Guido Manacorda, IDS
Guido outlined the findings of the ORFEUS field trials and research programme, asking what these results may mean for the future.
Industry Viewpoint – Mike Shepherd of UKWIR
Mike outlined the beginnings and history of buried infrastructure which has led to the current streetworks situation we see today.
MTU Lecture Session – Dr Miles Redfern, University of Bath
Miles demonstrated how MTU plans to combine the sensors’ outputs, fusing this with intelligence data from records and ground condition information.
ORFEUS Lecture Session – Meinolf Rameil, TraktoTechnik
Meinolf addressed the future potential for reducing risk in no-dig utility installation with new drill head GPR tools and sensors.
The View of Ordnance Survey – Mike Darracott
Mike outlined how knowledge is being created from mapping data.
Wheel Process Video
Dr Andrew Foo, a research fellow working on the Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields Work Package, has produced a video for the blog:
Andrew says:
This video illustrates a wheel attached with a gray-coded panel. The video images, captured at a known frame-per-second rate, are thresholded to produce binary data, and then decoded to calculate the speed and movement of the wheel.
GPR Hardware Video
The Video:
In this MTU-2 project, the GPR hardware is aiming to achieve excellent performance over a wide range of frequencies (150 MHz to 4 GHz, roughly). To do this, hardware configurations with advanced features are requires. In particular, the frequency generating oscillators, which are phase-locked to a common reference crystal, need to sweep across this wide band of frequencies, while still maintaining their signal’s ‘cleanliness’. Recently we have designed (and tweaked) a new hardware using the state-of-the-art synthesiser ADF4350, from Analog Devices Ltd., to fulfil this purpose. This short video gives a ‘feel’ of how this piece of GPR hardware looks and operates. (For further details, feel free to contact Dr. Adham Naji)
Dr. Adham Naji is one of the Research Fellows on the Ground Penetrating Radar Work Package. He has created a tour of some of the GPR Hardware he has been working on in the labs at the University of Bath.
February Event: In Pictures
The MTU Annual Event took place in February 2010 and was widely deemed to be a great success. We are in the process of producing an event report which will be posted as soon as possible. In the meantime, here is a pictorial roundup of the day.
Technology demonstrations and poster presentations.
Prototype equipment on display with MTU researchers on hand to demonstrate the technology behind the sensors.
The lively networking dinner on the evening of the 24th.
Excellent attendance from a wide range of sectors, both academic, industry partners and public sector representatives. We were proud to host a large international presence, including delegates from the United States and the Far East.
A broad range of short presentations continued throughout the day, outlining the latest development in the project while generating discussions among the audience.
- Technology demonstrations and poster presentations.
- Prototype equipments were set up and the researchers were present to demonstrate the technology underpinning the sensors.
- There were also posters set up for browsing at leisure.
GPR2008 Proceedings Available
The complete proceedings from the GPR2008 conference are now available to purchase. Please click here to be directed to the University of Birmingham’s secure online shop.
For more information about GPR2008, click here to visit the website.
Research Progress
Mapping the Underworld research continues to move forward on each Work Package, and within the team as a whole. For an update on our recent research progress, see our April 2010 Research Update.
MTU Event: February 25th 2010
On February 25th 2010, Mapping the Underworld is holding its annual dissemination event. The event will be held at the Ordnance Survey Business Centre in Southampton, and is a joint event with ORFEUS (Optimised Radar to Find Every Utility in the Street).
MTU will be detailing its research progress so far, and topics covered on the day will include:
- sensor technology developments
- a practitioner view of the problems at the interface between utility detection and streetworks
- an overview of the problems faced in the USA and an outline of the new US research programmes
- data fusion: combining sensor outputs with utility record
- ORFEUS’s advances and their applicability to current thinking.
More information about this event will be posted soon. For now, please hold this date: February 25th, 2010.
Booking a Place
Online bookings can now be made: click here.
Please note that there is no charge for attendance at the Mapping the Underworld Workshop for the official MTU project partners.
Welcome
Welcome to Mapping the Underworld’s new website. This is our blog, which will be used for brief updates and summary information about the project as a whole. We have a number of interesting posts in the pipeline, so please keep checking back or subscribe to our feed to keep up to date.
Web Design by Darren Langley
