A Hybrid Ground Data Model to Support Interaction in Mechanized Tunneling

Abstract

Tunneling processes are governed by diverse types of activities such as tunnel boring machine simulation, advance reconnaissance, or settlement detection. All these processes require detailed ground information on different levels of spatio-temporal scales. Therefore, a consistent ground data model is necessitated to store ground information of different categories such that diverse analyses and simulations can be provided. Due to the requirements posed by these analyses and simulations, a ground data model must be developed as a hybrid model to enable processing data in terms of boundary representation models as well as voxel-based octree models. To this end, the present paper gives an overview on how to create a ground data model tailored to the needs of mechanized tunneling. Also described is the process of reading data from an unmodified ground data model to handle tunneling specific queries. Finally, an outlook is given on future improvements.