18 Oct 2024

Automated Change Detection in Ground-Penetrating Radar using Machine Learning in R

Abstract: Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a useful technique for subsurface change detection but is limited by the need for a subject matter expert to process and interpret coincident profiles. Use of a machine learning model can automate this process to reduce the need for subject matter expert processing and interpretation. Several machine learning models were investigated for the purpose of comparing coincident GPR profiles. Based on our literature review, a Siamese Twin model using a twinned convolutional network was identified as the optimum choice. Two neural networks were tested for the internal twinned model, ResNet50 and MobileNetV2, with the former historically having higher accuracy and the latter historically having faster processing time. When trained and tested on experimentally obtained GPR profiles with synthetically added changes, ResNet50 had a higher accuracy. Thanks to this higher accuracy, less computational processing was needed, leading to ResNet50 needing only 107 s to make a prediction compared to MobileNetV2 needing 223 s. Results imply that twinned models with higher historical accuracies should be investigated further. It is also recommended to test Siamese Twin models further with experimentally produced changes to verify the changed detection model’s accuracy is not merely specific to synthetically produced changes.