2021 Volume 74 Pages 151-161
In recent years, several types of drones such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) have been developed, researched, and applied in various fields. This technology may be especially useful for the investigation of shallow subsurface problems at depths of meters to dozens of meters below the surface, which are of concern in fields such as infrastructure maintenance, environmental geology, and civil engineering. In particular, the demand for shallow subsurface exploration over a wide area and along a lengthy survey line without the need to dig up the ground is rapidly increasing. In response to these needs, we have begun to develop a new UGV electromagnetic (EM) exploration system (UGVEM system), which consists of a single-frequency multi-coil electromagnetic probe and UGV. In this study, we first conducted basic experiments at a test site to verify whether it would be feasible to use the new system designed from both a UGV and EM instruments. Then, to further evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of our system, field experiments were conducted along part of the Miyato River-bank in Kuno, Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. According to the data acquired from field experiments with our new system and apparent resistivity cross-sections generated by the observed data, we were able to conclude that the developed system can be applied for efficient field explorations of shallow subsurface geo-electrical structures.
