During a lunch-presentation at the Luleå Science Park, a project from Kiruna named the ”Hidden city” was presented in 2018. This projected considered Augmented Reality (AR) and visualization of water pipes underground. As these pipes are invisible from the surface, in the same way as underground excavations are, the project idea about augmented rock mechanics reality was born. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate AR technology and increase the knowledge regarding how AR can be used for rock mechanics purposes.
Daily, new technology connected to the rapid development in the IT sector reach us. And we should use and develop these tools where we see benefits. The research program 2021-2025 at BeFo invites to such utilization and this project is a good example if and how new IT tools can improve our processes. We can achieve this by working with people from other fields and with different skills. As in this project, where the rock mechanics engineer together with the expert in other technologies, in this case AR, takes a step into something completely new.
The planned activities of the project were a workshop, literature and case study review, study visits and interviews. The project started November 15, 2019 and the first reference group meeting was held November 26, 2019. The reference group provided input on the project and on the planned workshop at the second meeting held January 20, 2020. The reference group to this project consisted of: Mats Svensson (Tyréns AB), Henrik Ljungberg (Skanska Sverige AB), Sayidali Ahmed (Trafikverket), Tristan Jones (LKAB), Lars-Olof Dahlström (Golder Associates AB/LTU), Jekaterina Jonsson (Geosigma), William Bjureland and Per Tengborg from BeFo.
The workshop with nearly 40 participants was held in Stockholm on February 4, 2020. Unfortunately, the planned study visits during the spring were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The visits were replaced by open-ended qualitative interviews with people working in the role as rock mechanics engineer. Totally 20 interviews were performed. The results from the interviews together with results from the workshop have shown a common trend of suggestions on how AR could be used in a rock mechanics perspective.
The project was funded by BeFo, the Rock Engineering Research Foundation. We hope this report can be the basis and guide regarding what to focus on when developing AR in the field of rock mechanics.
Stockholm i januari 2021
Per Tengborg
Se inspelat webinarium från 24 februari 2021 där projektutförarna Catrin Edelbro (Itasca Consultants AB) och Robert Ylitalo (CGI) presenterar förstudien. Konkreta exempel på hur förstärkt verklighet (AR) kan användas ur ett bergmekaniskt perspektiv beskrivs. Exempel på praktikfall som beskriver hur AR används inom undermarksbyggande presenteras. Förstudien är finansierad av BeFo.
Till webinariet (Svenska Bergteknikföreningens Youtube kanal)