ORFEUS · Operational Radar For Every drill string Under the Street

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) offers significant benefits for urban environments by minimising the disruption caused by street works. Use of the technique demands an accurate knowledge of underground utility assets and other obstructions in the drill path.This proposal is to progress the prototype HDD bore-head radar technology developed under the project ORFEUS to a commercial stage.ORFEUS (“Optimised Radar to Find Every Utility in the Street”) was a 6th Framework collaborative research project. One of its aims was to design a prototype innovative ground probing radar (GPR) based real-time obstacle detection system to increase the safety margins of HDD to allow its use in the widest possible range of conditions. A successful outcome was a working, rigorously tested, prototype “bore-head GPR”. Most of the objectives of ORFEUS were fulfilled, with results in crucial areas giving confidence to carry out further development to produce a commercial system.Unresolved technical issues requiring further work are associated with the optimum antenna configuration and electrical/mechanical interface to the disposable drill head; identification and validation of the most effective bore-head GPR data processing algorithms; validation of performance, and ruggedisation of the data communication link; validation of performance, and ruggedisation of the connector systems.Extensive testing and validation, as well as supporting the demonstration and exploitation of the final product, is proposed. The crucial testing and evaluation phase will assess the risks, confirm environmental benefits and increase end users’ (public authorities and industry) confidence, awareness and uptake of this new technology.Technology transfer, training and standardisation, in cooperation with European standards organisations, will also be a significant element of the project.