Detecting buried objects? INESC TEC and FEUP won best paper award at international conference

Among the 35 papers presented at the ICINCO international conference – focusing on informatics, automation and robotics – INESC TEC researchers received “​Best Paper Award​​” with the work “Subsurface Metallic Object Detection Using GPR Data and YOLOv8 Based Image Segmentation”. The study focuses on the automatic detection of buried metal objects using Artificial Intelligence, something that usually involved humans.

GPR – ​Ground Penetrating Radar​ – is a technology that sends electromagnetic waves to the ground to detect objects. Electromagnetic waves are reflected differently by metallic objects, land or watercourses and this allows their identification. Still, the complexity of the data implied, until now, the participation of an expert to “analyse the response of the device”, explained Armando Sousa, researcher at INESC TEC.

With the development of this solution, the process becomes faster and more efficient, allowing to automatically interpret the data through AI. In addition, “the system finds the location of the object and estimates the depth and diameter of the object found”, explained the researcher. Armando Sousa stated that these advances “will improve the use of GPR in large areas for planting and/or identification of buried structures”, even though this work is still in an early stage.

But what led to this study? Practical applications can range from agriculture, construction or even archaeology and, in addition to facilitating the work of people operating in these sectors, it may also bring potential benefits. Armando Sousa ensured that, for now, the focus is on detecting buried metal objects, but in the future, the work will seek to “find of elements of interest, for example, underground watercourses, roots, etc.”, which will allow the best use of the land.

According to the researcher, the acknowledgement is an “international recognition of a work that stemmed from a master’s thesis in Electrical and Computer Engineering.”

The ICINCO (International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics) is an international conference focusing on informatics applied to control, automation and robotics. This annual event brings together researchers, academia representatives, professionals and students interested in these domains.

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.