Systems and methods for uniquely identifying buried utilities in a multi-utility environment

A system for uniquely identifying buried utilities in a multi-utility region, the system comprising:

• a magnetic field sensing locating device comprising:
• at least one antenna node to sense magnetic fields emitted from a plurality of buried utilities and provide antenna output signals corresponding to the sensed magnetic fields;
• a receiver circuit having a receiver input to receive the at least one antenna node output signals, an electronic circuitry to process the received antenna node output signals, and a receiver output to provide receiver output signals corresponding to the received magnetic field signals;
• and
• a processing unit, including one or more processing elements, coupled to the receiver output to receive the receiver output signals, and further coupled to:
• a location identification module to process the receiver output signals and identify utility data pertaining to the plurality of buried utilities from the receiver output signals, wherein the utility data comprises a plurality of location data points each indicative of location information pertaining to at least one of the buried utilities and associated characteristics of the at least one of the buried utilities;
• and
• a utility classification module to receive the location data points, generate a plurality of clusters each including a set of location data points sharing common characteristics, and classify the clusters, based on one or more patterns exhibited by the clusters, to uniquely identify each of the buried utilities.

A system for uniquely identifying and mapping buried utilities in a multi-utility region, the system comprising:

• one or more magnetic field sensing locating devices including one or more of vehicle-mounted magnetic field sensing locating devices and/or hand-carried magnetic field sensing locating devices, each of the plurality of magnetic field sensing locating devices comprising:
• at least one antenna node to sense magnetic fields emitted from a plurality of buried utilities and provide antenna output signals corresponding to the sensed magnetic fields;
• a receiver circuit to receive and process the at least one antenna node output signals to provide receiver output signals corresponding to the received magnetic field signals;
• and
• a processing unit coupled to the receiver output to receive the receiver output signals, and to a location identification module to process the receiver output signals, and identify utility data pertaining to the plurality of buried utilities from the receiver output signals, wherein the utility data comprises a plurality of location data points each indicative of location information pertaining to at least one of the buried utilities, and associated characteristics of the at least one of the buried utilities;
• and
• a remote server communicatively coupled to the one or more magnetic field sensing locating devices, the remote server comprising a utility classification module to receive the location data points identified by the plurality of magnetic field sensing locating devices, generate a plurality of clusters each including a set of location data points sharing common characteristics, identify one or more patterns exhibited by each of the clusters, and classify the clusters based on the patterns to uniquely identify and locate each of the buried utilities.