Controlling mobile construction equipment for subterranean mapping

A work machine, comprising:

• an excavation implement that excavates soil to generate an excavation;
• an image capture device;
• a machine orientation sensor that senses an orientation of the work machine and generates an orientation output indicative of the sensed orientation;
• capture control logic that detects actuation of the excavation implement and controls the image capture device to take a set of images of the excavation from different perspectives;
• metadata generation logic that generates time stamp metadata, location stamp metadata and orientation metadata identifying a time, a location and an image capture device orientation corresponding to the set of images;
• and
• a communication system that transmits the set of images and corresponding metadata and orientation output to a remote server.

A computer implemented method of controlling an image processing system, the computer implemented method comprising:

• receiving a first set of images of a first excavation site that is located at a first location;
• recognizing a first set of items in the first excavation site from the first set of images, the items being located below a surface level of ground at the first excavation site by a first subterranean depth;
• generating a first 3D representation of the first excavation site from the first set of images, with the first set of items located within the 3D representation at the subterranean depth based on the first set of images;
• storing the first 3D representation, corresponding to the first location of the first excavation site, in a data store;
• receiving a request, from a requesting system, identifying a requested location;
• accessing the data store to obtain the 3D representation corresponding to the requested location;
• generating a response that includes the 3D representation corresponding to the requested location;
• and
• sending the response to the requesting system.