Method of electronically mapping underground utility infrastructures from the surface

摘要

A non-invasive method of buried-utility-mapping includes using a long wavelength gradiometric ground penetrating radar to “see” patches of conductive material below ground and buried pipes and electrical conductors that are all constantly radio-illuminated by local AM radio broadcasts. The underground infrastructure of entire cities can be surveyed this way, point-by-point over time. A short wavelength part of the gradiometric ground penetrating radar operates shoulder-to-shoulder with the magnetic part and is able to improve shallow object resolution, map moisture build-ups under roads, and spot contaminated soils. Two gradiometric ground penetrating radar technologies, cameras, and navigation receivers can be mounted on city vehicles and a daily collection of their data batch transformed by digital processing algorithms into detailed and automatically updating false-color maps of the underground utilities of the whole city and other buried infrastructures.

主权项

1. A method of mapping underground utility infrastructures and other buried objects, comprising:
investigating buried objects point-by-point in an immediate search area of a ground surface radio illuminated by a radio broadcast transmitter in the 500-kHz to 1,000-kHz band transmitting from a location outside the immediate search area; sensing together short-wavelength reflections of 100-MHz to 2,000-MHz and long-wavelength scattering of the electro-magnetic radio energy of the radio broadcast transmitter from buried objects underneath in layered soils with a surface-based measurement of buried-object signals using at least a phase-coherent elimination of ground surface reflection noise of at least sixty decibels in digital signal processing with a field programmable gate array (FPGA); and interpreting signals and displaying visual representations and characteristic descriptions of underground utility infrastructures and the buried objects sensed together, located, and clarified, with a mapping apparatus capable of displaying aeronautical charts, satellite images, elevation maps, and geographically referenced overlays that can be displayed and printed over any map background.