Camera Based 3D Mine-Shaft Inspection System

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an Optical 3D Shaft Inspection System needed for the survey and monitoring of Water Handling Shafts in the German Ruhrgebiet. The development is part of the RAG R&D project “ABSMon”. The end of the German hard coal mining at the end of 2018 has been determined with the Steinkohlefinanzierungsgesetz (SteinkohleFinG) from 2007-12-20. About three hundred years before now the near surface hard coal mining began in the southern Ruhr Area and in our days advanced to the northern Ruhr Area with mining depth of around -1.500 meters. The mine workings are kept dry by mine water pumping. When the active mining activities will have finished a controlled Water Handling will raise and keep the mine water to levels predetermined by the Mining Authorities. A monitoring with a mobile wireline shaft survey system is needed to run the Water Handling Shafts for an enduring Water Management. At the moment only laser scanner systems are available, but also optical systems are needed to enable the near real-time inspection with 3D presentation and 3D examination during the measurement campaign. An approach is presented that uses a camera to generate high resolution and textured 3D models of mining shafts and tunnels for inspection purposes.