Handheld Mobile Laser Scanning in Potash Mines: An Evaluation of the ZEB-Revo
Mr Richard Walker, Mr Angus Errington, Mr Kyle O'Brien
Terrestrial, tripod based, laser scanning has been used for almost a decade in potash mines operated by Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. One of the primary uses of this technology underground is for closure and deformation measurement. Due to the nature of the ore body, as well as the depth of the mining horizon, closure rates in excess of 0.3 mm/day are possible. The typical method of surveying an area with a tripod based laser scanner is labour intensive and time consuming. Although deformation measurements are possible to the sub-centimetre level this accuracy is not always required. An alternative to traditional tripod based laser scanner measurements is provided by the ZEB-Revo which is a handheld mobile mapping device. The ZEB-Revo is based upon a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm and hence does not rely upon GPS updates. The paper presents some initial evaluations of the ZEB-Revo handheld laser scanner in under- ground potash mines. The data is compared to typical tripod based point clouds for the purposes of deformation measurement and volume estimation. It is shown that the ZEB-Revo produces consistent point clouds of suitable accuracy for many deformation monitoring and volume estimation tasks.
