ABSTRACT:
3D imaging developed by the CSIRO Division of Exploration and Mining is routinely used to map exposed rock faces in both open cut and underground environments. The 3D imaging technology accurately registers 2D image information from the rock face with 3D structural information defining the surface topology of the rock. As the efficiency of such automated mapping methods and the volumes of data produced by them increase, so does the need to rapidly map structures and analyse structural data that have been obtained from this 2D/3D space. Fracture properties such as orientation, size, spacing, shape and distribution type must be estimated from the data in statistically valid ways and the use of 3D imaging can improve the statistical reliability of structural mapping. These requirements have lead to efforts to automate the mapping of structure from 3D images. This paper presents current work covering the development of algorithms to automatically map rock structure so that extraction of structural parameters can be done more accurately and reliably.
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the use of laser and photogrammetric systems to map the surface topology of rock faces in mining and civil engineering applications has been increasing dramatically as the benefits of these remote mapping techniques have come to be realised. As the efficiency of such automated mapping methods and the volumes of data produced by them increase, so does the need to rapidly map structures and analyse structural data that have been identified. The use of 3D imaging can improve the statistical reliability of structural mapping by obtaining more data from larger, and sometimes inaccessible, areas. Fracture properties such as orientation, size, spacing, shape and distribution type must be estimated from the data in statistically valid ways and this requires sufficient data to apply statistical methods reliably.
