Buried object locating and tracing method and system employing principal components analysis for blind signal detection

    公开(公告)号:US07136765B2

    公开(公告)日:2006-11-14

    申请号:US11205267

    申请日:2005-08-15

    IPC分类号: G01V3/08

    CPC分类号: G01V3/12

    摘要: A blind locating system for finding and tracing buried objects such as utility lines, conductive pipes and sondes. A sensor array is coupled to a signal processor, which determines a field vector for one or more buried objects by producing a data signal representing a covariance matrix corresponding to the covariances of the time-varying sensor array signals over a selected frequency band and accumulation interval. The covariance matrix is characterized by eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors and a user interface (UI) indicates the field vector associated with the eigenvector having the largest eigenvalue. Using several different frequency bands, a plurality of underground objects may be simultaneously detected and indicated in the UI without foreknowledge of their existence or characteristics.