ABSTRACT
Extracting rock discontinuity parameters from a rock mass using remote sensing equipment, which is increasingly being mounted on remotely operated vehicles, is essential to improve safety, data processing efficiency and data quality. Over the last decade, research has focused on extracting rock discontinuity parameters from point cloud data collected from above-ground environments such as quarries, rock slopes, road cutting, etc. However, the extraction of rock discontinuity parameters from point cloud data via manual digital mapping and, more recently, using semi-automatic algorithms is steadily becoming the new normal. This research focuses on extracting rock discontinuity sets dip and dip direction from point cloud data collected from a drill and blast tunnel section. The approach has identified the limitation of using DSE in hard rock drill and blast tunnels and set the framework for additional research using the DSE and other semi-automatic algorithms in hard rock tunnels to extract rock discontinuity parameters from point clouds.
