Analysis of the Feasibility of UAS-Based EMI Sensing for Underground Utilities Detection and Mapping

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you for conducting a very interesting study to publish it in an international journal.

The article has excellent industry knowledge. However, it needs to be appropriately translated for publication and maintain interaction with scientific and technical knowledge. Translating it into the social and economic environment.

Further information on various issues identified in the manuscript appears below:

 

1.               Figure 1 should be preceded in the first instance by the text. The title of the drawing should be                 modified. It should not start with the words 'Previous success...'.

 

2.                 The publication needs to be rewritten. It is a colossal mess. It is advisable to introduce a chapter

,Methodology', and within it subsections: 'Research methods', 'Research area'.

In the sections and subchapters: 'Methodology', 'Research methods', 'Area of research', part of the text in the chapter 'Introduction' should be transferred and supplemented - including by standards and legal regulations. Here, it is also worth considering the use of the current Section 3, entitled 'The use of the current Sections 3: 'Materials and Methods'.

3.               In the introduction: controversy and divergent hypotheses should be highlighted.

4.               It is recommended that a table of advantages and disadvantages be drawn up in correlationwith the environmental impact occurring.

5.               Reference should be made to 'optimisation'. The word 'optimisation' needs to be definedespecially in the context of the research or regulatory literature.The title of the article is too long. It is worth modifying it.

6.               The terminology of 'failure risk' needs to be defined. Then relate it to RAMS - RAMS (Reliability,Availability, Maintainability, Safety).

7.           No reference to legal regulations, especially standards. The legal aspect needs to becompleted.

8.           Literature review is not rigorous. More literature on the safety and infrastructure. Including issues of remote sensing and telemetry systems.

9.       The sections 'Conclusions' is completely missing. Needs to be completed and discussed with the results obtained and the surrounding trends and scientific and technical global literature.

10.       The results should be supplemented. Whether the implemented solution works only with GPS or with total GNSS technology.

11.         In the text, all abbreviations used should be explained.

12.        I suggest dividing the results in Chapter 4 into subchapters: urban area, rural area, industrial area. Next make a summary in a table - it will be clearer for the Reader.

13.         The authors' photos and their description should be removed - possibly moved to SciProfile.

14.     Electromagnetic field, interaction with railway areas e.g.: railway lines with overhead line - impact of electromagnetic field interference - needs to be explained further.

15.         It should be pointed out what has not been done in the studies, what studies will be carried out in the future in this area.

 

This completes the review.

Kind regards

 

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

1. What's the moving speed of the drone?

2. How about the influence of the vibration during flying? If it is big, how to reduce it?

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The paper provides sufficient experimental evidence for the validity of proposed methods. However, there are several problems with the presentation and clarity of the provided descriptions.

 

First, it seems that there are numerous typos and stylistical errors in the text. Multiple co-authors are native English speakers, and this reviewer is not, therefore I am not exactly in position to provide guidance on English use. However, it looks to me that the following instances are worth reevaluation/fixing:

 

Line 3-7 (abstract): Excessively complicated sentence (to the point of hindering comprehensibility), consider splitting into multiple shorter sentences.

Line 36: While these techniques require access to the utilities hydro-vacuum excavation, has become increasingly popular. – weird use of coma.

Line 37-38: However, it is also one of the least economical. With the hydro-vacuum rental alone costing over $2,000/day. – weird splitting of closely related sentences (use coma instead?).

Line 46(and 49): primary eclectic field – electric?

Line 77: Custom made crossbeams fixed to the landing gear is provided the tether points. – provide?

Line 83: operating the UAS system an any environment not well suited for flying – in any environment ?

Line 86: Secondarily, the standoff distance of the sensor. - Secondarily, the standoff distance of the sensor plays an important role. (In written text, unlike in spoken presentation, the standalone statement seems less than optimal.)

Line beteween 102-103: both the secondary magnetic field – both the fields

Line 107: As an result – As a result?

Line between 131-132: secondary magnetic field that are detected – that is detected

Line 146: for detection deep linear conductors – for detection of deep linear conductors

Line 192: inpractcal. – impractical ?

Line 207: gadiometer – gradiometer

Line 227: described in Shubitidze et al.. – for the sake of consistency, better: described in [2]

Line 248: … known ground truth and is approximately the average of the two inversion results. – you probably mean:  … known ground truth which is approximately the average of the two inversion results.

Line 274: assocated – associated

Line 275: collection overlarge areas – over large areas

Ine 286: the total measure signal – measured

Line 287: and our minimize contribution from the primary field – and to minimize contribution

Line 305: The STR value that is needed … as discussed in [18]. – is discussed in [18].

Line 311: An 8 m standoff does not fit this criteria, although, well within the 10 - 20 dB range. - An 8 m standoff does not fit this criteria, although, the signal level is well within the 10 - 20 dB range.

Line 318: technique offers large standoff detection, is adaptable to UAS. – technique offers large standoff detection and is adaptable to UAS.

 

Moreover, I have these particular objections to the clarity of presentation:

The paper title is UAS based EMI Sensing for Underground Utilities Detection and Mapping. However, in this paper, no data are actually collected from UAS. Therefore, the title should be slightly different, like Preparation of …, or Analysis of suitability of …

 

Line 62: The triaxial gradiometer consists of a pair of three 15 cm diameter coils. Each pair of coils are oriented in the same directions (x,y, or z) and placed 1.68 m apart along y axis. – Thanks to fig.3 and fig.10 the situation is clear enough. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the description is not optimally clear: The gradiometer consists of a pair of triaxial sensors (that is three 15 cm diameter coils oriented along x, y and z axes) placed 1.68 m apart along y axis – see Fig.3 and Fig.10. The setup can evaluate (…if I understand correctly…) the homogeneous field Bx, By, Bz and also dBx/dy, dBy/dy and dBz/dy components of gradient.

 

Fig.8 – please consider adding geometrical plan of the configuration corresponding to presented data.

Fig.9 – figure caption is probably wrong – should be Model of differential (gradient) receiver

Formula (13) – please provide definitions of used symbols. What is Htgt?

Fig.18 – please consider adding geometrical plan of the configuration corresponding to presented data.

 

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

.) Abstract line 5: For consistency, write the distance R in capital letters

.) Abstract line 7: Write instead of 10s -> tens

.) Page 2 line 57: UXO?

.) The introduction lacks a detailed description of previous developments and the state of the art for dipole-based gradiometers for the detection and characterization of underground structures, their discussion and explanation of the novelties of the own development. Literature e.g.

Isaacson, S. D., Hartshorn, C. A., Barrowes, B. E., & Shubitidze, F. (2021, April). High frequency EMI sensing for detection and location of underground metallic utilities. In Detection and Sensing of Mines, Explosive Objects, and Obscured Targets XXVI (Vol. 11750, pp. 11-21). SPIE.

Shubitidze, F., Barrows, B. E., Shubitidze, T., & Perren, L. J. (2022). Linear Currents Sensing for Detecting and Locating Underground Structures. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Chang, S., Lin, Y., Zheng, Y. R., & Fu, X. (2020). Simultaneous detection of multiple magnetic dipole sources. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 56(9), 1-11.

Stolarczyk, L. G., Troublefield, R., & Battis, J. (2005, May). Detection of underground tunnels with a synchronized electromagnetic wave gradiometer. In Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense IV (Vol. 5778, pp. 994-1001). SPIE.

Dalichaouch, Y., Perry, A. R., Whitecotton, B. W., Moeller, C. R., & Czipott, P. V. (2000, July). Development of a room-temperature gradiometer system for underground structure detection and characterization. In Unattended Ground Sensor Technologies and Applications II (Vol. 4040, pp. 74-82). SPIE.

Mack, J. M., Moses, R. W., Kelly, R. E., Flynn, E. R., Kraus, R. H., Cogbill, A. H., & Stolarczyk, L. G. (1996). Detection of underground structures and tunnels (No. LA-UR-96-3171). Los Alamos National Lab.(LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States).

….

.) Page 4 Eq. 1 ff. n is the surface normal and a vector, or? Why is no vector sign -> instead of ^?

.) Page 10, line 227: Ref. not corr.

Author Response

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