El Teniente, Chile · inside a production drift: cable tray, services and rock walls in one model fused from 44 scans registered without GPS · Showcase
El Teniente · Chile · Underground
El Teniente underground study
44 robot-captured laser scans, delivered as raw text: no GPS, no colour, nothing aligned. Registered to each other and fused into one model of two kilometres of production tunnels.
Showcase: GroundMap processing of public survey data. No affiliation with the mine operator or the dataset authors.
- Laser scans registered into one model, with no GPS
- 44
- Overlapping surface registered within 1 cm
- 98.7%
- Scan pairs fitted more closely than by the dataset's published poses; the other 25 as closely, within 1 mm
- 153of 178
The study
Raw text files,
one mine
Forty-four laser scans from a robot, each in its own frame: no GPS, no colour, nothing aligned.
Challenge
Underground there is no GPS. The dataset arrives as 44 laser scans in raw text, each in its own scanner's frame, with no colour. Chained one scan to the next, small errors build: over two kilometres the same scans miss their loop closures by up to 1.43 m.
Approach
Each scan registered to its neighbours, then all 44 solved together from every overlapping pair at once, so no single pair can bend the network. Fused on a 2 cm grid with a per-point record of how many scans saw the surface and how closely they agree. One 30 m drift coloured from the robot's camera, with moving people and vehicles carved out.
Outcome
One cohesive model of the production level: 44 million points on a 2 cm grid, 34 % of the surface confirmed by two or more scans. The joint solution fits 153 of 178 overlapping scan pairs more closely than the dataset's own published poses, and the other 25 as closely, to within 1 mm. Across the mine it agrees with those poses to a median 3.8 cm.
Laser and colour
One drift,
two ways
The fused laser model of a 30 m drift, beside the same drift coloured from the robot's camera.
Stated limits
- The figures are registration agreement between scans, not absolute accuracy against control: the dataset has no survey control.
- Colour from the robot's camera covers one 30 m drift; elsewhere the model shows laser intensity.
- The camera looks forward and down, so roofs and upper walls next to the robot carry no colour.
- In the web view the roof is cut 2 m above the floor so the tunnels can be seen from above.
Projects
All projects ↗
Hobart 3D city model
Three airborne surveys flown over 16 years, fused into one true-colour model of the city centre. Every point graded, every modelled wall flagged.
- Measured points, three surveys
- 348million
- Points where two or more aligned surveys agree within 15 cm
- 64.7million
- Modelled wall points, every one flagged
- 49.8million
Satsop plant study
Inside an unfinished nuclear power plant: two separate survey campaigns, registered to each other and fused on a 2 cm grid into one model of rooms, stairs and the containment ring.
- Offset between the two campaigns as delivered, removed by registration
- 20cm
- Held-out median mismatch between the two campaigns after alignment
- 13.2mm
- Surface measured by both campaigns where the two agree within 3 cm
- 86%
Change detection study: Rosebery, Lake Mackenzie, Forcett–Dunalley
Eleven years of earthworks at a mine site and two bushfires, measured from repeat airborne LiDAR: every pair of surveys aligned on stable ground, and only change beyond the level of detection counted.
- Placed beyond the level of detection (95 %), Rosebery, 2015 to 2026 (0.59 million m³ removed)
- 1.56million m³
- Area where canopy cover fell beyond the level of detection (95 %): Lake Mackenzie, 2013 to 2016
- 10,695ha
- Area where canopy cover fell beyond the level of detection (95 %): Forcett–Dunalley, 2011 to 2013
- 1,915ha
Hobart 3D city model: Showcase: GroundMap processing of public survey data, not client work. Survey data: Hobart City 2023/24 (captured by Fugro for the State of Tasmania; theLIST; CC BY 3.0 AU), Climate Futures Derwent 2008 (captured by DiMAP for ACE CRC; ACE CRC licence) and Mount Wellington 2011 (no licence on record), via ELVIS. Processing: GroundMap. Satsop plant study: Showcase: GroundMap processing of public survey data. Survey data: DARPA Subterranean Challenge (Urban Circuit, Satsop, Washington, February 2020) / US Army Research Laboratory (no licence on record). Processing: GroundMap. No affiliation with the site owner or the survey teams. Change detection study: Rosebery, Lake Mackenzie, Forcett–Dunalley: Showcase: GroundMap processing of public survey data. Survey data: West Coast 2015 (theLIST; CC BY 3.0 AU), Rosebery 2026 (theLIST; CC BY 3.0 AU), North West 2013 (theLIST; CC BY 3.0 AU), Lake Mackenzie Road 2016 (theLIST; CC BY 3.0 AU), South East 2011 (theLIST; CC BY 3.0 AU) and Greater Hobart 2013 (no licence on record), via ELVIS. Fire perimeters: Fire History (Tasmania Fire Service) from theLIST © State of Tasmania (CC BY 3.0 AU). Vegetation classes: TASVEG 5.0 (NRE Tas) from theLIST © State of Tasmania (CC BY 3.0 AU). Aerial imagery © State of Tasmania (Land Tasmania), Rosebery flights of December 2015 and February 2026 (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 AU). Processing: GroundMap. No affiliation with the operator of the Rosebery mine.