Wakulla Springs ultrasound mapper

[Pitlamp]

I can't find my copy of the Wakulla book, which I'm sure would have sorted this query.

I just want to know the year that the first use of the 3D Digital Wall Mapper took place. (This was the device which encircled a dive scooter and gave out a "fan" of ultrasound signals, the echoes off the walls being then recorded by the device so that a 3D representation of the cave could be produced on a computer screen.)

This article implies it was in 1998 but doesn't absolutely specify that: https://www.usdct.org/wakulla2.php

Is anybody able to confirm it was 1998 when the 3D DWM was first used?

Thanks, if you can help.

 

[cfmwh]

USDCT - US Deep Caving Team

The United States Deep Caving Team is a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration, study, and public awareness of the earth's last remaining frontiers, and to the promotion of the development of technologies necessary to achieve those aims.

www.usdct.org

Suggests you were correct.

 

[Pitlamp]

Ta - but that's the link in my post above. As you say it "suggests" 1998; I was hoping someone might be able to confirm that's right. Cheers anyway.

 

[cfmwh]

Hah! Missed that!

Try this one https://www.gue.com/exploration-history-wkp

The proof is quite a way down.

 

[Martin Laverty]

NSS News 58(9) pp.245-260,270: Wakulla 2-Building the First Fully 3D Cave Map by Barbara am Ende says mapping with the DWM started in December 1998, but "It took approximately one month for all the preparation to be set in place and productive mapping missions to begin".

 

[Steve Clark]

I think you're correct with Winter 1998. There's a bit of footage of it in use in the Bill Stone TED Talk (skip to about 5min). It's part of a discussion about autonomous cave exploration, simultaneous location & mapping (SLAM) and potential use in deep space. A man with some vision! He makes a comment that 'none of this equipment existed before 1999' and 'it was all developed over a 2 year period', but actually I think the WKPP got the Wakulla permit back in 1999 and have had it ever since. So I think it was developed in the two years prior and actually used in Winter 1998.

I'm not sure if anyone else has done anything similar prior to this.

Slightly more DIY than NASA, a mate managed to convince Paralenz to lend us some cameras to do a multiple scooter mount for photogrammetry a few years ago. A 200mm soil pipe fits perfectly over a Suex XK1. I helped design the 3d printed ring of modular brackets for the cameras. It was tested in Sardinia and ended up with so much photo data it wouldn't process properly. It did get refined enough to create a half-decent mesh of the first few hundred metres of Ressel collected in a single scooter dive. Heavily reliant on super clear vis and lots of lights. Then a load of extra buoyancy tubes to compensate for the lights.

 

[Pitlamp]

Excellent; thanks folks, that tells me what I wanted to know.

(Interesting stuff there Steve.)

 

[Tseralo]

I think you're correct with Winter 1998. There's a bit of footage of it in use in the Bill Stone TED Talk (skip to about 5min). It's part of a discussion about autonomous cave exploration, simultaneous location & mapping (SLAM) and potential use in deep space. A man with some vision! He makes a comment that 'none of this equipment existed before 1999' and 'it was all developed over a 2 year period', but actually I think the WKPP got the Wakulla permit back in 1999 and have had it ever since. So I think it was developed in the two years prior and actually used in Winter 1998.

I'm not sure if anyone else has done anything similar prior to this.

Slightly more DIY than NASA, a mate managed to convince Paralenz to lend us some cameras to do a multiple scooter mount for photogrammetry a few years ago. A 200mm soil pipe fits perfectly over a Suex XK1. I helped design the 3d printed ring of modular brackets for the cameras. It was tested in Sardinia and ended up with so much photo data it wouldn't process properly. It did get refined enough to create a half-decent mesh of the first few hundred metres of Ressel collected in a single scooter dive. Heavily reliant on super clear vis and lots of lights. Then a load of extra buoyancy tubes to compensate for the lights.


View attachment 15409

View attachment 15410

So its your fault they went bust!

 

[mrodoc]

Years before that Pete Mulholland surveyed Pridhamsleigh Two using the same principle. I have the survey he drew. I owned a handheld sonar depth finder (still have it) I bought in an Axminster chandlers for what seemed a lot of money $100. I used it to check depths to find reefs when diving but Pete realised its potential as it was waterproof to 50 metres it could be used for horizontal measurement (up to 50 metres). He then hung on the shot line at various depths and took sightings (on a selection of compass bearings) out to the walls to create a 3 D image. As far as I know this was the first time this was done. Probably early 90's.

 

[Steve Clark]

Resurrecting an old topic.

Just seen on facebook, the WKPP have recently baby-sat a fully autonomous cave mapping vehicle 'SUNFISH' operating in Jackson Blue

Background photos and text :

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=wkpp

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1627077444693004

 

[alexchien]

John, you could easily check that Wakulla 2 info within the CDG Newsletters.
I drove that mapper for many kilometres on the Wakulla 2 expedition, and we recorded it all in the CDG Newsletters.

Also your question was "first use of the 3D Digital Wall Mapper took place.".
The mapper had been used previous to Wakulla 2 expedition (maybe for testing etc.), and so it would have been earlier in 1999 or maybe even 1998, when it was first used in a cave.

 

[Pitlamp]

Thanks alexchien - yes, there's some good stuff about in in the CDG literature.