Automated mobile geotechnical mapping

Programmed media for use with a computer, the programmed media comprising a computer program stored on non-transitory storage media compatible with the computer, the computer program containing instructions to direct the computer to:

• receive data produced by a plurality of sensors on a mobile sensor platform (MSP) moving through an environment, the data corresponding to sensed parameters of distance to planar surfaces in the environment, direction of gravity, direction of the Earth's magnetic field, and angular velocity;
• process the data by:
• (i) for each time step of a sequence of time steps, use the sensed distance to planar surfaces in the environment to extract observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces;
• (ii) for each time step of the sequence of time steps, use the sensed directions of gravity and the Earth's magnetic field and angular velocity to estimate orientation of the MSP without positional information, and clusters together observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces at each time step that are of similar orientation to observations of axes at other time steps;
• (iii) minimize uncertainty in the clustered observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces and in the estimates of the MSP orientations by linking the estimates of the MSP orientations, the clustered observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces, and the sensed directions of gravity and the Earth's magnetic field, and generate a set of optimized estimates of the orientations of the planar surfaces;
• and
• output a representation of the environment as axes that define the orientations of planar surfaces in the environment based on the set of optimized estimates of the orientations.

A method for generating a representation of planar surfaces in a physical environment, comprising:

• using a mobile sensor platform (MSP) including sensors that output sensor signals, wherein the sensors sense distance to planar surfaces in the environment, direction of gravity, direction of the Earth's magnetic field, and angular velocity, and the MSP is adapted to be moved through the environment;
• using a processor to receive and process the sensor signals, and:
• (i) for each time step of a sequence of time steps, uses the sensed distance to planar surfaces in the environment to extract observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces;
• (ii) for each time step of the sequence of time steps, use the sensed directions of gravity and the Earth's magnetic field and angular velocity to estimate orientation of the MSP without positional information, and clusters together observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces at each time step that are of similar orientation to observations of axes at other time steps;
• and
• (iii) minimize uncertainty in the observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces and in the estimates of the MSP orientations by linking the estimates of the MSP orientations, the clustered observations of axes that define orientations of the planar surfaces, and the sensed directions of gravity and the Earth's magnetic field, and generate a set of optimized estimates of the orientations of the planar surfaces;
• and
• output the representation of the physical environment as axes that define the orientations of planar surfaces in the physical environment based on the set of optimized estimates of the orientations of the planar surfaces.