Integrated sensing device for assessing integrity of a rock mass and corresponding method

An assessment apparatus for assessing the integrity of a rock mass, the apparatus including

• acoustic assessment means operable to directly measure sound and provide an acoustic assessment of the integrity of a rock mass;
• thermal assessment means operable to provide a thermal assessment of the integrity of at least a portion of the rock mass from which the acoustic assessment was received, the thermal assessment means being configured to capture a thermal image of a face of the rock mass while the face of the rock mass is in an ambient temperature condition in order to identify any segmented zones in the rock mass that are thermally decoupled from a host rock of the rock mass, including segmented zones extending into the rock mass beyond the face of the rock mass;
• and
• correlation means for correlating the acoustic assessment of the integrity of the rock mass with the thermal assessment of the integrity of the rock mass for at least the portion of the rock mass from which both thermal and acoustic assessments were received.

An assessment arrangement for assessing the integrity of a rock mass, the assessment arrangement comprising:

• an assessment apparatus comprising:
• acoustic assessment means operable to directly measure sound and provide an acoustic assessment of the integrity of a rock mass;
• thermal assessment means operable to provide a thermal assessment of the integrity of the rock mass, including means for identifying any segmented zones in the rock mass, including identifying segmented zones extending into the rock mass beyond the face of the rock mass, by capturing a thermal image of a face of the rock mass while the face of the rock mass is in an ambient temperature condition, and detecting any temperature differential zones existing on the face of the rock mass while the face of the rock mass is in the ambient temperature condition in order to identify any segmented zones of loose rock within the rock mass;
• and
• correlation means for correlating the acoustic assessment of the integrity of the rock mass with the thermal assessment of the integrity of the rock mass;
• and
• at least three location beacons locatable in known positions, the assessment apparatus operable in conjunction with the location beacons to determine its location in two- or three-dimensional space.