Using 3DM Analyst Mine Mapping Suite

for Rock Face Characterisation

Jason Birch, Managing Director

ADAM Technology

sales@[Link] [Link]

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 3DM Analyst
Mining Analysis Software

Session Overview
• Company Background
3DM Analyst

• Principals of Photogrammetry

• 3DM Analyst Mine Mapping Suite

• Components
• General Workflow
• Key Features

• Image Capturing Methods

• Applications

• Common Problems

• Q&A

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 3DM Analyst
Mining Analysis Software

Company Background
• 20 years’ experience in the photogrammetric industry (founded in
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1986)

• Designed, manufactured, and sold hundreds of analytical stereoplotters

worldwide, including many MPS-2s to mining companies

• Embarked on what was to become the 3DM technology

(3-dimensional, Dynamic Measurement) in 1996

• Developed and installed many custom photogrammetric factory control

systems in Japan for glass bottle making (3DM Gob) and rubbish pit
control (3DM Bunker)

• Wholly Australian-owned private company — all research,

development, and manufacturing conducted in Perth, Western Australia

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Principals of Photogrammetry
3DM Analyst

The location of any point in an image can The location of any point in the real world
be described with just two co-ordinates: can be described by three co-ordinates:
(x,y). Images are only two-dimensional. (x,y,z), (latitude, longitude, altitude), etc.
The real world is three-dimensional.

Photogrammetry is the science of using 2D images to make accurate

measurements in 3D. To do that, the information that was lost when the
image was captured needs to be recovered.

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Principals of Photogrammetry
Problem: The light that hits a given pixel in the image could have come
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from any point along the ray from the pixel, through the perspective
centre, into the scene.
Focal Perspective Centre
Length

Image
Sensor
Possible points of origin

Top-down view

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 3DM Analyst
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Principals of Photogrammetry
Solution: Adding another image taken from a different location allows us
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to intersect the rays and determine the 3D location of the point where the
light came from!

Image
Sensor Unique 3D location!

Top-down view

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Principals of Photogrammetry
Information needed to determine 3D locations:
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1. The location of each camera’s perspective centre. Exterior

2. The orientation (rotation) of each camera about its perspective centre. Orientation

3. The location of the point on each image sensor. Image Matching

This is the essence of photogrammetry!

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Determining Exterior Orientations

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Absolute orientation:
• All data is registered in a real-world co-ordinate system using known
points (control points and/or camera stations)

• At least three known points required in project (regardless of how

many images are used)

Relative orientation:
• Data is registered in an arbitrary co-ordinate system (can be specified)

• Scale normally provided by known separation(s) between camera

positions and/or known distances between points in scene

• All images in project must be “connected”

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Determining Exterior Orientations

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Inputs:
• Image co-ordinates of all control points and relative-only points
• Image co-ordinate sigmas (Sx,Sy)
• Control point co-ordinates
• Camera station co-ordinates
• Individual co-ordinate sigmas for both control points and camera
stations (Sx,Sy,Sz)

Outputs:
• Adjusted image co-ordinates for all points
• Adjusted control point co-ordinates
• Exterior orientations
• Derived ground co-ordinates for all of the relative-only points

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Important Characteristics of Photogrammetry

• Relatively range-invariant — simply choose the lens required to obtain
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the desired ground pixel size:

Focal Focal
Length Length

Image Image
Object

distance
pixelsizeground  pixelsizesensor
f

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Important Characteristics of Photogrammetry

• Accuracy highly configurable — planimetric accuracy depends on
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image accuracy and ground pixel size; depth accuracy additionally

depends on camera separation:
 plan   pixel  pixelsizeground

distance
 depth   plan
base
Good values for  pixel:

 0.5: Conservative value for planning

 0.3: Reasonable estimator of actual accuracy in most cases

 0.05: Best value actually observed (circular targets)

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Visualising Accuracy
• The relationship between accuracy in the image, planimetric accuracy,
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depth accuracy, and base:distance ratio can be visualised by looking at

the “error ellipse” that is formed when we adjust the location of the
point in each image by the image accuracy:

Error Ellipse

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Visualising Accuracy
• Increasing the base relative to the distance makes the error ellipse more
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circular, improving the depth accuracy:

Error Ellipse

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Measured Accuracy
BHPB Iron Ore, Mt Newman:
3DM Analyst

• Application: Geotechnical analysis

• Typical working range: 700m to 1.2km

• Nominal ground pixel size: 4cm × 4cm

• Typical accuracy: 0.1m to 0.2m

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Measured Accuracy
BMA Coal, Queensland:
3DM Analyst

• Applications: Surveying, resource modelling, geotechnical analysis

• Typical working range: 50m

• Typical ground pixel size: 1.5cm × 1.5cm

• Typical accuracy: 0.01m to 0.02m

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Measured Accuracy
Fugro Spatial Solutions, Western Australia:
3DM Analyst

• Application: Measuring road subsidence while train tunnel being

constructed underneath it

• Working range: 20m

• Ground pixel size: 0.5cm × 0.5cm

• Accuracy: 0.0004m! (Surveying retro-reflective targets)

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Measured Accuracy
3DM Analyst
How is it measured?
• Most comprehensive: Manually measure control points in 3D images,
compare with surveyed locations

• Easiest: Read bundle adjustment report to see residuals

• Good practice: Withhold some control points to act as “check points”

— residuals should be the same as the control points actually used

• Caveat: Need redundancy for this to work! Only three known locations
 data will fit perfectly and residuals will be 0!

Problem: Reported accuracy will never be better than the actual accuracy
of the survey data!

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Mining Analysis Software

3DM Analyst Mine Mapping Suite

Digital photogrammetric system designed to work with modern digital
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cameras:

• Automatically determines relationships between camera positions

(relative orientation) simply by inspecting images

• Automatically generates 3D surface data from imagery

• Powerful vector data digitising and editing tools with

over 160,000 user-defined feature types
supported

• Extensive operator assistance whenever human input is required

• Built-in digital camera calibration routines

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3DM Analyst Mine Mapping Suite

• 3DM CalibCam
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• Performing camera calibrations (interior orientations)

• Determining exterior orientations (camera positions and directions) for
any number of images simultaneously
• Surveying targets accurately (up to 80,000:1!)
• Creating extremely high-resolution merged images

• 3DM Analyst
• Generating, editing, and merging DTMs
• Digitising vector data using Single Image mode, Stereo, or 3D mode
• Analysing data — volume calculations, face detection, etc.
• Exporting data as 3D Images, DXF, etc.

• DTM Generator
• Generating DTMs and resulting 3D Images in batch mode
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Workflow
3DM Analyst
Geotechnical analysis in VULCAN:
Capture Images

3DM CalibCam
Determine camera orientations
or 3DM Analyst

Generate DTMs & 3D Images 3DM Analyst or

DTM Generator

Import 3D Images into VULCAN for interpretation VULCAN

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Workflow
3DM Analyst
Other applications:
Capture Images

3DM CalibCam
Determine camera orientations
or 3DM Analyst

Generate DTMs 3DM Analyst or

DTM Generator

Analyse data: calculate volumes, digitise vector data, etc. 3DM Analyst
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Key Features
• Ease of use
3DM Analyst

• Works with any digital camera

• Workflow is extremely automated and robust
• Intelligent troubleshooting built-in

• Accuracy

• Speed
• 15 seconds to automatically determine camera orientations;
five minutes to generate 250,000 DTM points on a 2GHz PC

• Flexibility
• Works with images captured in any environment under almost any
circumstances
• Can be used for almost any task where accurate 3D data is required
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Ease of Use Demo

3DM Analyst

The only thing not automated is determining the location of the data in the
physical world!

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Flexibility — Image Capturing, etc.

• Images can be captured in any configuration (convergent; strips; fans),
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even in the same project

• No pre-requisites on camera orientations —

software will work that out automatically!

• Any control data supplied in any configuration

and with any accuracy will be used in the
solution

• Camera calibration can be performed on an ad-hoc basis if required

using the same imagery as captured for the project and it can be
analysed to ensure validity

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Image Capturing: Independent Models

Optional overlap between
models
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Pros:
• Conceptual simplicity
• Flexibility — depth accuracy can be freely adjusted by changing base,
can be used with lenses of any focal length over any distance

Cons:
• Each model needs to be fully controlled (at least three known locations
— control points and (optionally) camera stations)
• Extremely vulnerable to bad control due to low level of redundancy
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Image Capturing: Image Strips

• Series of parallel images overlapping neighbours by at least 50%. (May
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be arranged in multiple rows, overlapping about 10%.)

Pros:
• Gives accurate exterior orientations with very few control points — one
control point for every five images is generally more than adequate
• Ideal for aerial imagery
Cons:
• Base is determined by field of view, which is determined by focal
length — best with short focal lengths

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Image Capturing: Image Fans

• Series of images overlapping neighbours by about 10% captured from
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Second model
each camera station First model

Pros:
• Fewer unknowns give strong orientations with very few control points
— minimum is one control point plus two camera stations for entire
project!
• Very fast — rotating camera to capture next area much quicker than
relocating camera
• Images can be merged (and treated as independent models in 3DM
Analyst) allowing very high resolution images with cheap cameras
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Applications — Geotechnical Analysis

BHPB Diamonds Ekati Koala mine:
3DM Analyst

• Camera: Nikon 1Ds, 135mm lens

• Project area: 500m × 300m
• Number of images: 27 from each camera station
• Number of camera stations: 2
• Distance to pit wall: 700m
• Ground coverage: 120m × 80m per image (3cm pixel size)
• Number of control points: 7 (placed around the top of the pit in safe
locations)
• Accuracy: Sx = 0.14m, Sy = 0.08m, Sz = 0.04m.
• Processing time to generate 3D images from scratch: 4 hours, only 8
minutes of which was actual user time!
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Applications — Geotechnical Analysis

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Applications — Geotechnical Analysis

Key advantages:
3DM Analyst

• Data can be obtained remotely when there is no safe access (up to 3km
away!)

• Features can be identified that would not be apparent at close range

• Speed of acquiring data compared to other methods

• Accuracy and detail of data compared to other methods

• Acquiring the data has little impact on other activities

• Images form a permanent record that can be referred back to in the

future

• The physical components — the parts that can break down — are
relatively cheap, available from many suppliers, and easy to replace
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Applications — Aerial Mapping

Thiess Indonesia:
3DM Analyst

• Camera: Canon EOS 300D, 28mm lens

• Project area: 140km (captured in one day)

• Number of images: ~1,200

• Flying height: 600m – 800m

• Ground coverage: 600m × 400m per image (20cm ground

pixel size)

• Accuracy: 0.2m

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Other Applications
3DM Analyst

Resource Modelling Tunnel Mapping

Truck Volume Calculation

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Exciting New Developments

Cost-effective aerial photography using fully autonomous UAVs:
3DM Analyst

• Ideal for pit mapping and stockpile volume calculations

• 2 hour endurance, 100 hour service interval, 6,000 feet ceiling

• Onboard GPS for autonomous navigation —

program in desired camera locations as waypoints,
UAV captures images from each waypoint in turn

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Some Existing 3DM Analyst Customers

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Common Problems
Bad imagery:
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• Poor quality images — blurry, badly exposed, optically different from

calibration  use prime lenses, tripod, aperture priority (f/8), focus at
infinity (or use autofocus at distances similar to calibrated distance)
• Incomplete coverage of area being mapped  plan better, capture
redundant images (images are cheap!), go back and capture additional
images if possible
Bad observations:
• Bad control point/camera station co-ordinates  plan for redundancy
so bad points can be disabled
• Incorrect observations of points in the images  correct them!
• Insufficient relative-only points  reduce matching tolerance, use a
lower ISO setting to reduce noise, digitise one or more “seed” points
manually
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Common Problems
Bad DTMs:
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• Large number of bad points  increase matching tolerance, use

automated spike removal tools, use a lower ISO setting on the camera
to reduce noise

• Incomplete/sparse DTMs  reduce matching tolerance, use a smaller

base, use a lower ISO setting on the camera to reduce noise, digitise
data manually as a last resort

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Mining Analysis Software
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Product Range

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Mining Analysis Software

3DM Analyst Lite

• Designed for customers with less demanding workloads:
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• Can calculate exterior orientations for two images at a time

• Supports images of up to 16 megapixels

• Can upgrade to any other product in the range at any time simply by
paying the difference in list price for the software and support
agreement

• ADAM Price Guarantee: List prices for upgrades are fixed as long as
your ADAMcare support agreement is continuously maintained

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3DM Analyst Lite Suite

• Combines 3DM Analyst Lite and 3DM CalibCam Lite
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• Designed for customers with larger workloads and who want to reduce
the number of control points required for absolute orientations:
• Can calculate exterior orientations for up to 10 images at a time
• Supports images of up to 24 megapixels
• Supports image merging allowing cheaper cameras to be used to generate
high-resolution images

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3DM Analyst Mine Mapping Suite

• Combines 3DM Analyst, 3DM CalibCam, and DTM Generator
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• Designed for customers with very large workloads and who want to be
able to calibrate their own cameras:
• Can calculate exterior orientations for any number of images at a time
• Supports images of up to 65 megapixels (on a PC with 2GB of RAM)
• Supports image merging
• Supports camera calibration
• Supports batch processing of any number of DTMs offline (+ generate 3D
Images from them) without human intervention
• Separate dongles for 3DM Analyst and 3DM CalibCam so both can be
used simultaneously on separate PCs

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3DM Analyst Professional

• Designed for professional mapping organisations working with large
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format scanned images:

• Can process any number of images at a time
• Supports images in excess of 250 megapixels
• Supports batch processing of any number of DTMs offline (+ generate 3D
Images from them) without human intervention

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Demos, Q&A
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