Towards Integrated Rock Support Visualisation in 3D Point Cloud of Underground Mines

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automated framework for integrated 3D visualization of rock support in underground mines, combining structure mapping, bolt identification, and discontinuity analysis for enhanced geotechnical assessment.

Contribution

The study presents a novel unified workflow that automates the integration of structural mapping, bolt detection, and analysis in 3D point clouds, improving accuracy and efficiency.

Findings

Accurate structure mapping and bolt identification in medium-scale point clouds.

Effective visualization of bolt and discontinuity interactions.

Enhanced assessment of support quality through integrated metrics.

Abstract

The effectiveness of rock support in underground mines depends on the interaction between installed rock bolts and the structural fabric of the surrounding rock mass. However, discontinuity characterisation and rock bolt identification are commonly treated as separate tasks, limiting their value for integrated support assessment. This study presents an automated framework for integrated rock support visualisation using 3D point clouds of underground mine excavations. The framework integrates structure mapping, rock bolt identification, discontinuity plane fitting, and bolt orientation estimation into a unified workflow optimised for accuracy and computational efficiency. The outputs are used to generate an integrated 3D visualisation of fitted discontinuity planes and bolt vectors, enabling direct assessment of their spatial intersections and geometric relationships. A complementary stereographic analysis of discontinuity poles and bolt orientations is also performed to evaluate overall bolting geometric effectiveness relative to the mapped structural fabric. Additionally, bolt-level quality metrics, including exposed protrusion length and deviation from the local roof normal, are visualised to support assessment of installation quality. The proposed framework is demonstrated on real underground metal mine scans, producing accurate structure mapping and rock bolt identification results in medium-scale point clouds. Overall, the study provides a practical step towards automated, integrated geotechnical assessment of rock support effectiveness without requiring manual measurements or additional in-situ data acquisition.