AI advancing tunnel constructions: Senior geologist Ramana Reddy shares experience

By Express News Service

Tunnelling technology has reached its zenith due to the ever-increasing demands of infrastructure projects. Geological and hydrogeological advances, tunnel design and capacity, building techniques, and speed and maintenance throughout operations contribute to its realisation. 

Several tunnel-building techniques are pitted against one another in a competition, each with its pros and cons. Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) have steadily improved since their inception. They are now being used for more difficult tasks.

During such times, Ramana Reddy, Sr. Geologist Scientist, came up with an innovation that combined both artificial intelligence and laser beam technology to streamline the tunnelling. The tunneling machine that’s developed, utilises high energy laser beams to cut through subsurface soil and rocks in the required tunnel shapes. It will also minimise risks of collapse due to the destabilisation of subsurface soil and rocks. The issue of labour and the infrastructural cost of tunnel construction will also be solved utilising this technology.

This innovative technology will need 80 gigawatt seconds of laser power to vaporise one cubic metre of rock. Reddy has integrated a high-energy laser beam technology at the machine’s main head to help regulate how much heat it generates, and that technology will gradually disperse the firepower. It can pulverise 3.6 cubic metres of earth in an hour, which is a good time to curve through a large tunnel. A lot of gas, particularly carbon dioxide, will be required for the machine.

Massive amount of CO2 will control the lasing process. As a result, the laser optics will be cleansed, and the fire will extinguish even further. Five bars and a powerful exhaust would be ideal for this task. Several megawatts of more electricity will be needed because of this. The laser heads can move toward each other as they cut through the hard rock. This movement of laser heads is where AI trains the head lasers to move at specific distances and frequencies.

Reddy stated that this contribution with this invention will bring major significance to geotechnical engineering by using the latest AI with laser beams to curve tunnels for the very first time. This has not been tried anywhere in the world as most tunnel construction utilises boring machines. He added that the innovation will improve safety for the surface construction because it will reduce tremors during the underground cuttings.

Reddy, while talking about its significance and economic benefits in countries like the US, where AI is highly used, proposed that the implementation of this technology will give a major boost to the infrastructure projects, which will contribute to the economy of the country.