Reconnaissance of Two Liquefaction Sites Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Structure from Motion Computer Vision Following the April 1, 2014 Chile Earthquake
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 5
Abstract
Small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs) were used to reconnoiter, image, and model the effects of soil liquefaction at two separate sites following the M8.2 and M7.6 earthquakes near Iquique, Chile, on April 1 and 2, 2014, respectively. Geotechnical investigators performed conventional observations/measurements at the two sites using traditional reconnaissance methods, and virtual observations/measurements using sUAV-based remote sensing and structure from motion (SfM) computer vision. Two types of sUAV platform/sensor combinations were evaluated for this study. Comparisons between the traditional and sUAV-based reconnaissance methods were performed and observations are discussed. The sUAV-based point cloud models of the sites were between 770 and 2,600 points per square meter depending on the camera that was used, with average model dimensional error ranging from to . Lateral spread displacement measurements from the UAV-based three-dimensional models were generally within 9 cm of the lateral spread displacements measured in the field, and measured vertical deformations from the models generally agreed well with the deformations reported by previous investigators. This study demonstrates that sUAVs can be useful instruments for post-disaster geotechnical surficial site reconnaissance.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this study was provided in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) through Project No. BYU13-03; the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER), which is funded through the NSF Geotechnical Engineering Program under Grant No. CMMI-1266418; and NSF Grant No. CMMI-1235526. C. Ledezma was funded by the Chilean Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) under Grant No. 11110125. This support is gratefully acknowledged. However, the views and opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the NSF, C-UAS, GEER, or FONDECYT. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of their fellow GEER researchers that helped investigate and document the geotechnical damage from the April 1 Iquique earthquake, particularly Professors Gonzalo Montalva (Universidad de Concepción) and Esteban Sáez (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile).
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 5 • May 2017
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©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 4, 2016
Accepted: Sep 14, 2016
Published online: Dec 2, 2016
Published in print: May 1, 2017
Discussion open until: May 2, 2017
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