Technical Papers
Aug 7, 2023

Subsurface Object 3D Modeling Based on Ground Penetration Radar Using Deep Neural Network

Publication: Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering
Volume 37, Issue 6

Abstract

In numerous infrastructure health monitoring and inspection applications, swift and precise three-dimensional reconstruction of subsurface objects from ground penetrating radar (GPR) data is of critical importance, particularly given the recent advancements in perception modeling and the emergence of deep learning. Nonetheless, current research on the reconstruction of subsurface infrastructure scenes and objects faces limitations. Owing to the restrictions of conventional GPR data processing, these methodologies are prone to GPR data with noisy backgrounds and struggle to recreate noncylindrical objects. This paper investigates the back-projection (BP) approach for GPR-based three-dimensional (3D) subsurface target reconstruction and presents a learning model that formulates the reconstruction as an implicit BP from 2D to 3D representations, circumventing any preprocessing requirements in contrast to traditional techniques. The proposed learned model ultimately generates an explicit volumetric representation of the subsurface objects. Experimental results show at least a 33% enhancement in the performance of the proposed model compared to meticulously designed baselines.

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Data Availability Statement

Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online in accordance with funder data retention policies. The data and code can be found at https://github.com/Jing-lun/GPR_3D_Model_Reconstruction.

Acknowledgments

Financial support for this study was provided by NSF Grant IIP-1915721, and by the US Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (USDOT/OST-R) under Grant No. 69A3551747126 through INSPIRE University Transportation Center (http://inspire-utc.mst.edu) at Missouri University of Science and Technology. The views, opinions, findings and conclusions reflected in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent the official policy or position of the USDOT/OST-R, or any State or other entity. J. Xiao has a significant financial interest in InnovBot LLC, a company involved in R&D and the commercialization of the technology.

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Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering
Volume 37Issue 6November 2023

History

Received: Feb 3, 2023
Accepted: Apr 26, 2023
Published online: Aug 7, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 7, 2024

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Jinglun Feng [email protected]
Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Electrical and Engineering, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031. Email: [email protected]
Research Assistant, Dept. of Electrical and Engineering, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031. Email: [email protected]
Jizhong Xiao [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Electrical and Engineering, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031 (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]

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