AUTOMATED MOBILE GEOTECHNICAL MAPPING

Provided are apparatus and methods for generating a representation of a physical environment, comprising: a mobile sensor platform (MSP) including sensors that output sensor signals relating to parameters such as range, gravity, direction of the Earth's magnetic field, and angular velocity. The MSP is adapted to be moved through the environment. The sensor signals are processed and observations of axes in the environment are generated for a sequence of time steps, the orientation of the MSP is estimated for each of the time steps, observed axes are identified at each orientation, and similar axes are associated. The orientations, the axes in the environment, and the directions of gravity and the Earth's magnetic field are linked such that each observation is predicted based on the estimates of the orientations. An estimate of the orientations is optimized and an output of the representation of the physical environment is generated based on the optimized orientation estimates. The output may be an axis map, a visual representation, and/or a data set. In one embodiment the output device may produce an output comprising a stereonet.