An Effective Method for Submarine Pipeline Inspection Using Three-Dimensional (3D) Models Constructed from Multisensor Data Fusion

Xiong, C.; Li, Z.; Sun, X.; Zhai, J., and Niu, Y., 2018. An effective method for submarine pipeline inspection using three-dimensional (3D) models constructed from multisensor data fusion.Submarine pipelines are of great importance to resource delivery in the oceans, but they are sensitive to a wide variety of damage and defects. In submarine resource development, life cycle monitoring is the most effective solution to ensure normal operation of pipelines, and periodic surveying and inspection are adopted as the main maintenance tasks. Recently, approaches based on acoustic surveys have been widely used for submarine inspection. However, most existing methods are based on simple parameters that cannot precisely detect the actual status of submarine pipelines under complex conditions. In this paper, to resolve the shortfalls of conventional methods, an effective method is proposed for submarine pipeline inspection based on multisensor data fusion, wherein the survey data collected by side-scan sonar, subbottom profiler, and multibeam bathymetric systems are integrated to make three-dimensional (3D) models of submarine pipelines, and a safety assessment is then conducted on the 3D models to evaluate the reliability of the pipelines at different positions. Compared with the traditional approach, the reliability of the pipeline inspection results are greatly improved, and the effectiveness and merits of the proposed method are clearly demonstrated.