Automatic GPR image classification using a Support Vector Machine Pre-screener with Hidden Markov Model confirmation

This paper presents methods to automatically classify ground penetrating radar (GPR) images of crevasses on ice sheets for use with a completely autonomous robotic system. We use a combination of support vector machines (SVM) and hidden Markov models (HMM) with appropriate un-biased processing that is suitable for real-time analysis and detection. We tested and evaluated three processing schemes on 96 examples of Antarctic GPR imagery from 2010 and 104 examples of Greenland imagery from 2011, collected by our robot and a Pisten Bully tractor. The Antarctic and Greenland data were collected in the shear zone near McMurdo Station and between Thule Air Base and Summit Station, respectively. Using a modified cross validation technique, we correctly classified 86 of the Antarctic examples and 90 of the Greenland examples with a radial basis kernel SVM trained and evaluated on down-sampled and texture-mapped GPR images of crevasses, compared to 60% classification rate using raw data. In order to reduce false positives, we use the SVM classification results as pre-screener flags that mark locations in the GPR files to evaluate with two gaussian HMMs, and evaluate our results with a similar modified cross validation technique. The combined SVM pre-screen-HMM confirm method retains all the correct classifications by the SVM, and reduces the false positive rate to 4%. This method also reduces the computational burden in classifying GPR traces because the HMM is only being evaluated on select pre-screened traces. Our experiments demonstrate the promise, robustness and reliability of real-time crevasse detection and classification with robotic GPR surveys.