Towards affordable and robust remote photogrammetric sensing for early warning of fracturing and structural failure

Early warning systems are critical for saving human lives in the presence of structural failure. This is particularly relevant in mining operations in parts of the world with variable safety standards. To achieve this, affordable and robust structural health monitoring (SHM) is required. Photogrammetry is an image processing technique that can be used to measure deformation in geomechanical structures, enabling the reconstruction of displacement and strain fields with high accuracy (up to one-hundredth of a pixel). The use of standard cameras makes photogrammetry an inexpensive approach to automated SHM. However, while photogrammetric techniques have proven successful in laboratories and controlled environments, further development is needed to deal with a broader range of environments. This paper outlines recent research to overcome limitations of the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) photogrammetry technique, with the goal of achieving robust, low cost, automated SHM systems.