GROUND MATERIAL TYPE IDENTIFICATION

Field of the invention

[1] The present invention relates to a method of determining a ground material type of a ground material, to ground determination system, to a ground modifier.

Background of the invention

[2] Terrain modification is an integral part of earthwork and construction in general, and the ground materials of the terrain literally lay the foundation for most further construction work. E.g., most buildings, roads, bridges etc. are built on top of terrain that has been modified in some way, both in terms of its topology and ground material composition and in terms of the composition of ground material layering of the terrain. E.g., some ground material of a terrain may not be suited for use in some construction projects, and therefore, it can sometimes be detrimental if such ground material is not removed or replaced by another ground material. Moreover, if the terrain/ground modification at a building site is not carried out properly, it may be detrimental to the rest of the construction work. Thus, ensuring that terrain/ground modifications are carried out properly is highly important. Obtaining any information about terrain modification may involve labor-intensive manual work, including, e.g., drilling boreholes to obtain test samples of the terrain. Also, these samples represent only a small percentage of the modified terrain.

Summary of the invention

[3] The inventors have identified the above-mentioned problems and challenges related to earthwork ground construction work and provide an invention, which may provide ground material determination of a ground material. [4] The invention relates to a computer-implemented method of determining a ground material type of a ground material of a terrain, the method comprising steps of:

[5] establishing a modified terrain by moving said ground material of said terrain using a ground modifier; measuring ground material related data of said moved ground material to establish input measurements; determining a ground material type of said ground material by analyzing said input measurements on the basis of a ground characterizing model.

[6] The invention advantageously enables automatic determination of ground material type of a ground material. Preparing a terrain for, e.g., further construction of buildings, roads etc. often involve removing layers of a terrain comprising specific ground material types. Hence, the ability provide by the invention of automatic determination of ground material type may, e.g., be advantageous in that it provides, e.g., an operator of a ground modifier performing such ground modification knowledge of what ground material type is being moved and/or removed.

[7] Furthermore, different ground material types results in different bearing capacity of the terrain. Therefore, it may be advantageous to know what ground material is being moved/removed from the terrain in order to establish a suitable bearing capacity of the modified terrain. In this regard, the automatic determination of ground material type provide by the invention is advantageous.

[8] It should generally be noted that a computer implemented method in the present context refers to an automatic execution of one or more algorithms, method steps relevant to determine the a ground material type according to the provisions of the claims. A computer in the present context may be understood in a conventional way within the art, e.g. including one or more data processors and associated memory. It may also include any type of automatic relevant interfacing and communication between involved electronic circuitry enabling the computer to receive the input measurements perform the intended analysis and output the determined ground material type for storing in a communicatively coupled memory and e.g. for optional for visualization on a display. [9] In the context of the invention, a terrain may be understood in a broad sense, hence, a terrain may in addition to a terrain, be understood to also include a pile of ground material. A terrain may also be understood to include ground material located on, e.g., a vehicle such as a truck, ground material lying on top of asphalt or concreate etc.

[10] In the context of the invention, a modified terrain is a terrain that has been modified. The process of terrain modification leads to a modified terrain. A terrain modification of a modified terrain is also understood to result in a modified terrain. Modifying a terrain may in principle involve any type of changes made to a terrain by a ground modifier. Hence, modifying a terrain may involve, e.g., scraping, digging, compressing, pushing, pulling and drilling and offloading ground material, to name a few non-limiting examples. Typically, a terrain modification leads to smaller or larger visible change in the topology of the terrain, however, ground modification may also provide other less prominent or less visible changes to a terrain, such as compacting ground material of the terrain. Filling ground material onto a terrain may in principle also be understood as a ground modification, e.g., by offloading ground material off of a bucket of a ground modifier such as an excavator. Typically ground modification is performed by a ground modifier.

[11] In the context of the invention, a ground modifier may be understood as any machine that may modify a terrain. Non-limiting examples of a ground modifier includes an excavator, a wheel loader, a snow groomer, a dozer, any vehicle with a ground modification arrangement having an earthwork tool mounted. The earthwork tool may, e.g., be a bucket.

[12] In the context of the invention, ground material may be understood as the material that a terrain is made of, given the understanding of a terrain described in this disclosure. It should be understood that ground material may in the context of the invention include materials such as different types of granulate, asphalt and concreate and other building materials. Furthermore, ground material may be characterized in different ways, e.g., ground material may be characterized by different ground material types. The ground material types may have different properties, be made of material of different sizes, etc. In the context of the invention, non-limiting examples of ground material types include, .e.g., soil, sand, sandy soil, silt, silt soil, clay, clay soil, loam, loamy soil, rock, rock soil. Further non-limiting examples of ground material types may include, e.g., gravel, bedding sand, mason sand, fill sand, bentonite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, crushed stone, limestone, granite, basalt. Some of the mentioned ground material types may be ground material types, which may also be characterized as a more general ground material types. E.g., bedding sand, mason sand and fill sand may all be understood as a being a ground material of the more general type sand, since all of these ground material types are sands. Depending on the particular implementation of the invention, different levels of detailing in the determination of ground material type may be applied. It is withing the scope of the invention to determine both a general ground material type and ground material types withing the general ground material type. E.g., determining both sand as a general ground material type, and, e.g., determining bedding sand as the a more precise ground material type of sand. It should be noted that all relevant material types may have different characteristics depending on how the ground material in question is moved. In other words, moved ground material (whether it is scraped, lifted, . . . .etc.), may result in different input measurements while pointing to the same ground material type.

[13] The ground material type may also be characterized into ground material types based on particular properties, e.g., into ground material types having different degree of cohesiveness of a ground material, into ground material types having different degrees of bearing capacity etc.

[14] In the context of the invention, ground material related data may comprise any measurable/obtainable data that may be associated with a ground material, including any obtainable data that changes or varies depending on the ground material. E.g., when a ground modifier modifies a terrain and hence handle ground material, the ground material type handled by the ground modifier may affect measurable parameters/metrics, including parameters/metrics that may be associated with the ground modifier and may be obtainable. Such parameters may also be considered ground material related data. [15] It should be understood that the input measurements are at least based on the ground material related data. Hence the ground material related data may, e.g., be understood to be utilized, e.g., directly as input measurements. Hence, the input measurements may include the ground material related data, or at least a representation of one or more of the ground material related data.

[16] In the context of the invention, ground characterizing model may be understood in a broad sense as one or more algorithm and/or one or more models that may determine ground material type based on input measurements. This may include, e.g., a mathematical model or a combination of mathematical models and/or algorithms, which together may determine ground material type based on input measurements.

[17] It should be understood that ground material may sometimes comprise a mix of more than one ground material type. E.g. when modifying a terrain by, e.g., digging with a bucket, the bucket may comprise a mix of different ground material. Nevertheless, typically one ground material type constitutes the largest part of the analyzed ground material, e.g., the material contained by an earthwork tool such as a bucket during digging. Especially, because ground modifiers are often applied to remove some type of material from a terrain. Hence, determining the ground material type may, e.g., be understood as determining the ground material type that constitutes the largest part of the analyzed ground material.

[18] In the context of the invention, the term analyzing may be understood in a broad sense as processing of data. In the present context, analyzing may, e.g., be performed to determine ground material type Analyzing may comprise several different types and steps of data processing.

[19] In the context of the invention, moving said ground material may be understood in a broad sense, and hence may include several different ways of moving ground material. This may including different ways of repositioning ground material from one location to another, on both a big or a small scale. An example of moving ground material on a smaller scale may include, e.g., compressing ground material. Non-limiting examples of moving ground material may include moving ground material by pushing, pulling, scraping, lifting, digging, compressing, drilling, and any combinations hereof. A combination may, e.g., be performed with a ground modifier and may include digging into ground material, lifting it, moving it in a horizontal direction and offloading the ground material.

[20] In the context of the invention the term moved ground material may be understood as ground material that has been moved by a ground modifier e.g. by lifting, scraping, digging, off-loading, compressing, pulling, pushing, etc, including any engaging with ground material may provide meaningful data which may be applied for determine ground material type.

[21] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model receives said input measurements and produces a classification output comprising said ground material type of said ground material based on said input measurements.

[22] According to an embodiment of the invention, said input measurements includes ground material related data measured of nearby ground material; wherein said nearby ground material is characterized by being located close to an initial location of said moved ground material.

[23] This is advantageous because nearby ground material may very often be the same material as the material being moved by the ground modifier. Hence, ground material related data of nearby ground material may advantageously be utilized to determine the ground material type, which is advantageous.

[24] In the present context, the initial location of the moved ground material may, e.g., refer to the location of that particular ground material before it was moved. E.g., moved by a ground modifier.

[25] According to an embodiment of the invention, said input measurements includes ground modifier characteristics. [26] Advantageously, this has the effect of improving accuracy and precision with which ground material type may be determined. The ground modifier characteristics may include information related to the ground modifier (GM) performing the modification of a terrain. This may, e.g., include the type of earthwork tool (e.g. a bucket) mounted on the ground modifier, size specifications of the earthwork tool including its volume, the mass of the earthwork tool, to name a few non-limiting examples.

[27] According to an embodiment of the invention, said method is performed automatically.

[28] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material type is selected among a plurality of predefined ground material types.

[29] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material type is determined among predefined ground material types, wherein said predefined ground material types comprises a type for unknown outcomes and/or unsuitable input measurements.

[30] According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein said ground material type is determined among a plurality of predefined ground material types including at least: sand, rock, clay, loam.

[31] Advantageously, this may have the effect that some of the most commonly found ground material types may be determined.

[32] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material type is determined among a plurality of predefined ground material types comprising one or more of the ground material types from the list comprising: soil, sand, sandy soil, silt, silt soil, clay, clay soil, loam, loamy soil, rock, rock soil, gravel, organic, sand, clay, peat, chalk, gravel, vegetation.

[33] The organic ground material type may refer to soils comprising large amounts of organic material. This type of ground material may typically be found in upper ground layers of a terrain or it may be supplied from a soil provider and be used for fill material.

[34] The ground material type vegetation may refer to plant materials, including, e.g., wood chips, grass, bushes, trees etc., to name a few non-limiting examples. The vegetation may thus comprise processed vegetative materials such as, e.g., the mentioned wood chips, cut down branches of trees or bushes etc., and vegetation may also comprise vegetation that has not yet been processed including being cut down.

[35] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material type is determined among a plurality of predefined ground material types, wherein said plurality of predefined ground material types comprises one or more of the ground material types from the list comprising: bedding sand, mason sand, fill sand, bentonite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, silt, loam, crushed stone, limestone, granite, basalt.

[36] Advantageously, this may enable determination of further ground material. Moreover, this may have the effect that the ground material type may be determined at a more detailed level, which is advantageous. E.g., mason sand, fill sand, bedding sand etc., may be determined instead of these types being merely determined, e.g., at a more general level as being sand.

[37] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material types is determined among a plurality of predefined ground material types, and wherein said plurality of predefined ground material types comprises at least one or more ground material types from the list comprising: stable rock, type A soil, type B soil, type C soil.

[38] Advantageously, this may have the advantage that these ground material types of a ground material characterizes the cohesiveness (sometimes referred to as stableness) of the ground materialO. Hence, this has the advantage of classifying ground material types into classes that characterizes the ground cohesiveness of the ground material type. This is useful in, e.g., construction work. [39] In the context of the invention, stable rock may be characterized as, e.g., natural solid mineral matter that may be excavated with vertical sides and remain intact while exposed.

[40] In the context of the invention, type A may refer to cohesive soils. Type A may be characterized by included one or more of the following: clay, silty clay, sandy clay, clay loam and in some cases, silty clay loam and sandy clay loam, cemented soils such as, e.g., caliche and hardpan.

[41] According to an embodiment of the invention, type A is further characterized by comprising cohesive soils having an unconfined, compressive strength of substantially 1.5 ton per square foot (144 kPa) or greater.

[42] According to an embodiment, type A may not include previously disturbed soils.

[43] In the context of the invention, type B soil may be characterized by comprising any one or more of the following: cohesive soil with an unconfined compressive strength greater than 0.5 tsf (48 kPa) but less than 1.5 tsf (144 kPa); granular cohesionless soils including angular gravel (similar to crushed rock), silt, silt loam, sandy loam. Type B may further comprise silty clay loam and sandy clay loam.

[44] In an embodiment of the invention, type B may further also include previously disturbed soils except those defined as Type C.

[45] In an embodiment of the invention, Type B may also include dry rock that is not stable.

[46] In the context of the invention type C may comprise one or more of the following: granular soils including gravel, sand, and loamy sand, submerged soil or soil from which water is freely seeping, and submerged rock that is not stable.

[47] In an embodiment of the invention, type C may comprise cohesive soil with an unconfined compressive strength of 0.5 tsf (48 kPa) or less. [48] Type A is the most stable type, while type C is the least stable type, and type B is less stable than type A, but more stable than type B. Therefore, it may thus be advantageous to determine whether a ground material is a type A, Type B or Type C ground material type.

[49] According to an embodiment of the invention, said moving said ground material includes at least digging and/or scraping and/or lifting, and/or offloading said ground material, and/or pushing said ground material and/or compressing said ground material.

[50] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data is measured during said moving said ground material and/or before said moving said ground material and/or after said moving of said ground material.

[51] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data is measured during said step of establishing said modified terrain.

[52] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material data is measured when said ground modifier digging into said ground material.

[53] Advantageously, this may have the effect that the ground material related data is measured when the ground modifier, e.g., the earthwork tool of the ground modifier engages with ground material. Thereby, the measured ground material related data may be particularly affected by the particular ground material that the ground modifier is digging into. This is advantageous because it may have the effect of facilitating accurate ground material determination. Also, this may have the effect that ground material data is measure when the ground modifier is engaging with ground material and not measuring when the ground modifier is not interacting with ground material. This may provide training input measurements and input measurements that is not clouded by ground material related data that is not affected by interaction with ground material, which is advantageous.

[54] According to an embodiment of the invention, said input measurements comprises ground material related data. [55] According to an embodiment of the invention, said input measurements comprises at least two different types of ground material related data.

[56] Advantageously, this may have the effect of improving the performance of the ground characterizing model. E.g., improving the precision and/or the accuracy, which is advantageous.

[57] In the context of the invention, different types of ground material related data may be understood as ground material related data obtained from different types of sensors. E.g., one type of sensor may be a camera, whereas another type of sensor may be an accelerometer, an inertial measuring unit, a strain gauge, to mention a few nonliming examples of sensors.

[58] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data is obtained using one or more sensors.

[59] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors are arranged on said ground modifier.

[60] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more vibration sensors.

[61] Advantageously, this may have the effect that the ground material type may be determined bas on vibration measurements acquired by one or more vibrations sensors. Vibrations of a ground modifier may be dependent on the ground material type of a ground material that the ground modifier is handling when modifying a terrain, e.g., by moving the ground material. Hence measuring vibrations based on one or more vibration sensors, advantageously, may provide robust determination of ground material type.

[62] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one vibration sensor is arrange on a ground modification arrangement of said ground modifier.

[63] The above described vibrations of a ground modifier may be most prominent in the ground modification arrangement of the ground modifier. Since a sensor arranged on the ground modification arrangement may best measure these vibrations, it is advantageous to arrange at least one vibration sensor on the ground modification arrangement.

[64] The ground modification arrangement may be understood as the part of the ground modifier that moves the earthwork tool, e.g., a bucket, used for performing ground modification. This may in the context of a ground modifier being an excavator include, e.g., the boom, arm, earthwork tool, tilt-rotator etc.

[65] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more inertial measurement units configured to generate IMU data.

[66] This may be advantageous in that inertial measurement units provide several different measures that may provide information about the described vibrations, via, e.g. one or more included gyroscope(s) and/or one or more included accelerometer(s). These sensors are sensitive to any movements, and hence also sensitive to vibrations. Moreover, the data provided by an inertial measurement unit may be utilized to determine position information, such as tool point position information. These data may, advantageously, be utilized, e.g., as input measurements, and thereby be utilized to determine ground material type. An inertial measuring unit may sometimes be understood to be a vibration sensor.

[67] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said one or more inertial measuring units is positioned on the earthwork tool of the ground modifier.

[68] Advantageously, this enables the sensor to acquire data which comprises good information regarding the ground material type being processed/moved by the ground modifier. E.g., this position may be particularly sensitive toward vibrations of the earthwork tool that occur during ground modification with the earthwork tool and the vibrations may varies across different ground material types, which is advantageous.

[69] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises at least two inertial measurement units, such as at least two inertial measurement units, such as at least three inertial measurement units, such as at least four inertial measurement units.

[70] Advantageously, the data output from multiple inertial measurement unites may have correlating data patterns. Hence when using the output of multiple inertial measurement units as input measurements and/or as training input measurements, the correlating data patterns may improve the performance of the performance of the ground characterizing model. E.g., improve the model accuracy, precision, fl score, etc., which is advantageous.

[71] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more one gyroscope.

[72] A gyroscope may be sensitive to the described vibrations, and hence, a the data provided by a gyroscope may advantageously be utilized as ground material related data to determine ground material type. A gyroscope may hence sometimes be utilized as a vibration sensor

[73] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors includes one or more accelerometer.

[74] An accelerometer may be sensitive to the described vibrations, and hence, a the data provided by an accelerometer may, advantageously, be utilized as ground material related data to determine ground material type. An accelerometer may, hence, sometimes be utilized as a vibration sensor

[75] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data comprises material density.

[76] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material density is estimated based on image data acquired by a camera, and based on a loadcell arranged on said ground modifier. [77] According to an embodiment of the invention, said material density is estimated based on a moved material volume and based on a mass measurement of said moved material volume.

[78] Advantageously, different materials have different densities, hence being able to obtain or estimate material density may be utilized to determining the ground material type.

[79] In the context of the invention, the term moved material volume may refer to a volume of ground material moved by a ground modifier in a single ground modification operation. A ground modification operation may in the precent context be understood as, e.g., the operation and/or process that leads to filling of an earthwork tool of a ground modifier with ground material. This may, e.g., include a cut by an earthwork tool into a terrain and a following digging motion leading to filling of the earthwork tool with ground material from the terrain. An earthwork tool may refer to the tool that is mounted (attached) on a ground modifier and used to modify a terrain. Hence, an earthwork tool may, e.g., include a bucket. The earthwork tool, including a bucket, may have different sizes and shapes and may be used to modify a terrain in various ways.

[80] According to an embodiment of the invention, said moved material volume is based on a difference between two ground surface representations, wherein a first ground surface representation of said two ground surface representations is established before said ground modifier moves said ground material, and wherein a second ground surface representation of said two ground surface representations is established after said ground modifier has moved said ground material type and before said ground modifier moves further ground material from said terrain.

[81] Advantageously, this has the effect of providing a measure, such as an estimate, of the moved material volume. This is advantageous in that the material volume may be utilized together with a mass measurement of the material volume to estimate the material density. [82] According to an embodiment of the invention, said mass measurement is performed by one or more mass measuring units arranged on said ground modifier.

[83] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more mass measuring units.

[84] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more mass measuring units comprises at least one load cell.

[85] Different ground material types have different density, and thereby providing one or more mass measurements of ground material being handled by a ground modifier may advantageously be utilized in the determination of ground material type. The mass measurements may be measured in various ways, e.g., using a loadcell. The mass measurements may be provided as input measurements in combination with other types of ground material related data. This may advantageously increase the performance of the ground characterizing model.

[86] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more optical sensors.

[87] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more camera(s) configured for imaging said ground material to establish image data.

[88] This is advantageous in that images of the ground material may be utilized to determine ground material type of the ground material. Images data acquired with the one or more cameras may be utilized in different ways according to different embodiments of the invention. E.g., because different ground materials look differently, image data, including video or regular images may be utilized to determine ground material type of the imaged ground material. Image data may further be utilized as input measurements in combination with other types of ground material related data to determine ground material type. This may advantageously improve the performance, e.g., the accuracy of the ground characterizing model. [89] In the context of the invention, the one or more cameras may be digital cameras, and including video camera(s).

[90] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data includes said image data.

[91] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises at least one ground penetrating radar.

[92] Advantageously, a ground penetrating radar may provide data that may be suitable to determine ground material type. More specifically, the ground penetrating radar may advantageously utilize that electromagnetic properties differs between ground material types.

[93] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more pressure sensors configured to measure a hydraulic pressure of cylinders of a ground modification arrangement of said ground modifier.

[94] Advantageously, the pressure sensors may be utilized as input measurements and/or as training input measurements to determine ground material type or to train a ground characterizing model, respectively.

[95] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises sensors configured to measure a travel distance of hydraulic pistons of said ground modifier.

[96] Advantageously, these sensors may be utilized as input measurements and/or as training input measurements to determine ground material type or to train a ground characterizing model, respectively.

[97] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises a strain gauge. [98] Advantageously, the one or more strain gauge may be utilized as input measurements and/or as training input measurements to determine ground material type or to train a ground characterizing model, respectively.

[99] According to an embodiment of the invention, said step of determining said ground material type comprises comparing predetermined ground material type characteristics of predefined ground material types with said input measurements.

[100] According to an embodiment of the invention, said comparing said predetermined ground material type characteristics of predefined ground material types with said input measurements is based on a similarity analysis.

[101] According to an embodiment of the invention, said similarity analysis is includes comparing on one or more metrics of the ground material related data and the predetermined ground material related data, wherein said one or more metrics includes one or more of the following list comprising: variance, standard deviation, root mean squared, median.

[102] According to an embodiment of the invention, said similarity analysis includes a correlation analysis.

[103] According to an embodiment of the invention, said predetermined ground material type characteristics comprises predetermined ground material related data including one or more from the following list comprising: density, image data, IMU data, ground penetrating radar data.

[104] According to an embodiment of the invention, said predetermined ground material related data is measured from ground material related data of ground materials having a known ground material type.

[105] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is configured to perform a similarity analysis between input measurements comprising ground material related data and corresponding predetermined ground material related data of a plurality of predefined ground material types; wherein the data type of the ground material related data and the corresponding predetermined ground material related data is the same; and wherein the ground material type is determined as the predefined ground material type having predetermined ground material related data being most similar to said ground material related data.

[106] This is advantageous in that this way of determining ground material type is fast and may be performed without requiring large computer resources.

[107] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material type is determined based on an amplitude of sensor output from one or more of said one or more sensors.

[108] According to an embodiment of the invention, said step of determining said ground material type comprises a step of generating a frequency representation of said ground material related data and utilizing said frequency representation as input measurements to the ground characterizing model.

[109] The frequency spectrum may be generated in various ways, including, e.g., Fourier transform, fast Fourier transform etc. This advantageously, transforms said input measurement from a function of time to function of frequency. Advantageously, e.g., vibrations measured with, e.g., IMU sensors may provide more robust determination of ground material type when the IMU data of the inertial measurement unit(s) is transformed into a frequency representation.

[110] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material type is determined based on a correlation between ground material related data and predetermined ground material related data of a plurality of predefined ground material types; and wherein a predefined ground material type with predetermined ground material related data having the closest correlation is determined as the ground material type.

[111] Advantageously, this provides a fast and less computer resource demanding way of determining the ground material type.

[112] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a machine learning model. [113] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a supervised machine learning model and/or an unsupervised machine learning model and/or a reinforcement learning model.

[114] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model.

[115] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a supervised classification model.

[116] Advantageously, this may have the effect that the ground characterizing model is able to learn to determine ground material type based on training data. In other words, the ground characterizing model may, e.g., classify ground material type based on prior knowledge from a training dataset.

[117] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model comprises one or more from the list comprising: a gradient boosting model, a decision tree, a random forest model, a support vector machine, a neural network model, a Bayesian based model, a logarithmic model, a Boltzmann machine, a probability based model, Markov model, an elastic net model.

[118] The non-neural network based models may be advantageous to use over neural network models, when the training dataset is relatively small, since these models may provide a superior performance over the neural network based models in such situation.

[119] It should be understood that different probability based models may be utilized, including, e.g., conditional random field, and Markov models such as, e.g., hidden Markov models and maximum entropy Markov models, to name a few nonlimiting examples.

[120] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a neural network based model. [121] Advantageously, neural network models may provide superior performance, including accuracy, precision and fl score compared to other types of machine learning models, and especially when trained on larger training dataset. Moreover, neural network based models does not need engineered features that are based on, e.g., ground material related data to perform adequately, instead the neural network based models may provide very good performance when utilizing even raw ground material related data given as input measurements. Advantageously, neural network based models are thus not limited by the information reduction that occur when extracting features from the ground material related data, but may utilize all the ground material related data to determine ground material type. Altogether, neural network based models tend to outperform other types of machine learning models.

[122] The term neural network based model should be understood as any model that includes at least one neural network, including hybrid models comprising a neural network of any type. A neural network based model may further be understood to include any type of neural network. Non-limiting examples of different types of neural networks may include, e.g. convolutional neural networks, recurrent neural networks, multilayer perceptron models, transformer networks, etc.

[123] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model includes at least one convolutional neural network.

[124] Advantageously, a convolutional neural network may minimize amount of the computations required to perform determine ground material type, e.g., compared with a traditional fully connected neural network. Furthermore, a convolutional neural network model may advantageously be able to generate to generate features and hence, a convolutional neural network does not necessarily require feature engineering.

[125] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model comprises a recurrent neural network.

[126] It is within the scope of the invention to utilize various different types of recurrent neural networks. Non-limiting examples of recurrent neural network types that may, e.g., be utilized may comprise long short-term memory network, gated recurrent unit network.

[127] Long short-term memory networks and gated recurrent unit networks may advantageously, be utilized to handle, e.g., problems with vanishing gradients. The gated recurrent unit network may have less parameters than a long short-term memory network and hence may be faster. However, the long short-term memory network may provide a better performance, e.g., better accuracy etc., when the input comprises longer data series.

[128] According to an embodiment of the invention, said classification model is a neural network model and/or a multilayer perceptron, a convolutional neural network model and/or a recurrent neural network model and/or a long short-term memory network model and/or a gated recurrent unit network.

[129] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model comprises two or more neural network based models.

[130] According to an embodiment of the invention, said two or more neural network based models are different types of neural network models.

[131] According to an embodiment of the invention, a last neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models is configured to classify said ground material type based on an output received from a previous neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models.

[132] According to an embodiment of the invention, a last neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models is a fully connected neural network classification model.

[133] According to an embodiment of the invention, a last neural network based mode of said two or more neural network base models is a multilayer perceptron model. [134] According to an embodiment of the invention, a first neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models is a convolutional neural network and/or a recurrent neural network, and wherein said first neural network based model is configured to provide an output to a next neural network based model or to said last neural network based model.

[135] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said two or more neural networks based models is a recurrent neural network.

[136] According to an embodiment of the invention, a first neural network is a convolutional neural network and wherein a second neural network of said two or more different types of neural network based models is a recurrent neural network configured to receive an output from said convolutional neural network and further configured to provide an output to a last neural network based model or to a next neural network based model.

[137] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model comprising a feature extraction module having an input layer and an output layer.

[138] According to an embodiment of the invention, said classification model comprises a classification module having an input layer and an output layer; and wherein an output layer of said feature extraction module is connected to said input layer of said classification module.

[139] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model: a recurrent neural network module having an input layer and an output layer; a classification module having an input layer and an output layer; and wherein an output layer of said recurrent neural network module is connected to an input layer of said classification module.

[140] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model comprising: a feature extraction module having an input layer and an output layer; a recurrent neural network module having an input layer and an output layer; a classification module having an input layer and an output layer; and wherein an output layer of said feature extraction module is connected to said input layer of said recurrent neural network module, and wherein an output of said recurrent neural network module is connected to an input layer of said classification module.

[141] According to an embodiment of the invention, said feature extraction module is a convolutional neural network.

[142] According to an embodiment of the invention, said feature extraction module is a recurrent neural network.

[143] Advantageously, recurrent neural networks are capable of utilizing sequential dependencies in the ground material related data provided as input measurements, to determine the ground material type.

[144] According to an embodiment of the invention, said recurrent neural network module is a long short-term memory network.

[145] Advantageously, long-term memory networks may provide superior accuracy and precision compared to standard (sometimes referred to as vanilla) recurrent neural networks because of the ability to handled longer term dependencies in the ground material related data.

[146] According to an embodiment of the invention, said recurrent neural network module is a gated recurrent unit network.

[147] This is advantageous in that a gated recurrent unit network requires less memory and is faster compared to, e.g., long short-term memory networks.

[148] According to an embodiment of the invention, said classification module is a multilayer perceptron model.

[149] Advantageously, the multilayer perceptron provides good accuracy and precision with regards to classifying ground material type. Especially, when the classification is based on features extracted based on, e.g. a feature extraction module and/or further based on an output of a recurrent neural network.

[150] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is an ensemble model.

[151] Advantageously, this is advantageous in that it may have the effect of improving accuracy and performance over other types of ground characterizing models, including other supervised classification models. Ensemble models may be particular advantageous when using multiple types of ground material related data to as input measurements but also the ensemble model may advantageously handle noisy data better than other types of classification models. An ensemble model may also reduce the risk of overfitting and underfitting by balancing the trade-off between bias and variance, and, e.g., by enabling different sub-models of the ensemble model to use different subsets the input measurements.

[152] It should be noted that the input measurements used for analysis be means of machine learning may be pre-processed by any of the above disclosed analytical processing, such as frequency analysis (FFT), variance, transient analysis, threshold analysis, etc.

[153] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model used for determining ground material type is a trained classification model established by training a classification model on the basis of labeled training input measurements.

[154] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is trained on the basis of labeled training input measurements.

[155] According to an embodiment of the invention, said labelled training input measurements comprises training input measurements labelled with a known ground material type associated with said training input measurement; and wherein each of said training input measurements are established based on measured ground material related data of moved ground material of said known ground material type. [156] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training input measurements may comprise ground modifier characteristics.

[157] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training of said classification model comprises: receiving training input measurements; generating labelled training input measurements by individually labelling said training input measurements in accordance with said known ground material type associated with said training input measurements; establishing a training data set on the basis of said labelled training input measurements; providing said classification model; training said classification model based on said training data set to establish a trained classification model.

[158] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training input measurements and/or said input measurements undergo pre-processing before being utilized for said training or said determining said ground material type, respectively.

[159] According to an embodiment of the invention, said preprocessing includes denoising.

[160] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data of a moved known ground material is obtained by: establishing a modified training terrain by moving said known ground material of said training terrain using a ground modifier; and obtaining said ground material related data of said moved known ground material to establish said ground related data of a moved known ground material.

[161] According to an embodiment of the invention, each of said labelled training input measurements comprises a training input label designating a ground material type and a data array based on said ground material related data of a moved known ground material.

[162] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data and said ground material related data included in said training input measurements comprises the same data types. [163] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data included in said training input measurements is obtained from a plurality of ground modifiers.

[164] According to an embodiment of the invention, said labeled training input measurements are received by a cloud server.

[165] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training of said ground characterizing model is performed by a cloud server.

[166] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is trained using backpropagation.

[167] According to an embodiment of the invention, metadata is registered to said ground material type to generate a log.

[168] According to an embodiment of the invention, said log is stored in a data log.

[169] According to an embodiment of the invention, said log is stored on a data server.

[170] According to an embodiment of the invention, said data server is a cloud server.

[171] According to an embodiment of the invention, said metadata comprises elevation and geographical location registered to each determined ground material type of said ground material.

[172] According to an embodiment of the invention, said metadata comprises a timestamp registered to each determined ground material type.

[173] According to an embodiment of the invention, a digital representation of said modified terrain is established based on said elevation and said geographical location; and wherein said digital representation is labeled according to said ground material type to generate a labelled ground surface representation. [174] According to an embodiment of the invention, said method comprises a step of displaying said labelled ground surface representation.

[175] According to an embodiment of the invention, said labelled ground surface representation is stored in said data log.

[176] According to an embodiment of the invention, said log may be visualized on a display based on the established labelled ground surface representation.

[177] In this way it may be possible to visualize layers of ground material types, and the user of a user interface may optionally choose layers of interest.

[178] According to an embodiment of the invention, said method comprises a step of displaying said ground material type on a display.

[179] The display may typically be a included in a user interface.

[180] According to an embodiment of the invention, said display is associated with said ground modifier.

[181] According to an embodiment of the invention, said display is arranged on said ground modifier.

[182] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier is an excavator.

[183] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises: a wheelbase; a ground modification arrangement comprising an earthwork tool; and one or more sensors configured to measure ground material related data.

[184] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier is an excavator further comprising: a motor; a transmission; a body portion comprising a cab; wherein said ground modification arrangement is moveably fixated to said body portion and wherein said ground modification arrangement comprises: a boom; an arm moveably mounted to an end of said boom; and a bucket moveably mounted to an end of said arm. [185] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a display configured to display said ground material type.

[186] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier is a ground modifier according to embodiments of the invention.

[187] The invention further relates to a ground modifier comprising: a wheelbase ; a ground modification arrangement comprising an earthwork tool; one or more sensors configured to measure ground material related data; an analyzer module comprising: an input measurement receiver configured to receive input measurements comprising said ground material related data; a ground characterizing model; wherein said ground characterizing module is configured to determine a ground material type of a ground material being moved by said ground modifier.

[188] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier is an excavator further comprising: a motor; a transmission; a body portion comprising a cab; wherein said ground modification arrangement is moveably fixated to said body portion and wherein said ground modification arrangement comprises: a boom; an arm moveably mounted to an end of said boom; and a bucket moveably mounted to an end of said arm.

[189] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a display configured to display said ground material type.

[190] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a display configured to display a representation of a ground material type determined based on input measurements.

[191] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more vibration sensors.

[192] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one vibration sensor is arrange on a ground modification arrangement of said ground modifier. [193] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more inertial measurement units configured to generate IMU data.

[194] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said one or more inertial measuring units is positioned on the earthwork tool of the ground modifier.

[195] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said one or more inertial measuring units is positioned on an arm of said ground modifier and/or on a boom of said ground modifier and/or on a stick of said ground modifier and/or on a tilt rotator of said ground modifier and/or on a body portion of said ground modifier.

[196] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises at least two inertial measurement units, such as at least two inertial measurement units, such as at least three inertial measurement units, such as at least four inertial measurement units.

[197] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more one gyroscope.

[198] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors includes one or more accelerometer.

[199] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more mass measuring units.

[200] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more mass measuring units comprises at least one load cell.

[201] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more optical sensors.

[202] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more camera(s) configured for imaging said ground material to establish image data. [203] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data includes said image data.

[204] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises at least one ground penetrating radar.

[205] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more pressure sensors configured to measure a hydraulic pressure of cylinders of a ground modification arrangement of said ground modifier.

[206] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises sensors configured to measure a travel distance of hydraulic pistons of said ground modifier.

[207] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises a strain gauge.

[208] According to an embodiment of the invention, said strain gauge is arranged to measure a force exerted on any one or more components of said ground modifier during said moving of said ground material.

[209] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a positioning arrangement configured to track a tool point position to establish tool point position information of said earthwork tool by repeatedly acquiring elevation and a geographical location of the position of said tool point.

[210] According to an embodiment of the invention, said position arrangement comprises one or more local positioning sensors configured to provide local positioning information of a position of a tool point of said ground modifier; and a global positioning arrangement configured to provide global positioning information of said ground modifier.

[211] According to an embodiment of the invention, said global positioning arrangement comprises two global navigation satellite system receivers arranged on said ground modifier. [212] According to an embodiment of the invention, said local position sensors is said one or more inertial measurement units.

[213] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a tool point localizing module configured to determine a digital representation of a modified terrain established by said ground modifier based on said tracking of said tool point performed by said positioning arrangement.

[214] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a data storage configured to store a data log.

[215] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground modifier comprises a transmitter configured to transmit at least said determined ground material type.

[216] The invention relates to a ground material type detection system; wherein said system comprises: one or more sensors arrangeable on a ground modifier and configured to measure ground material related data of a ground material when said ground modifier modifies a terrain by moving said ground material; an analyzer module comprising: an input measurement receiver for receiving input measurements based on said ground material related data; and a ground characterizing model configured to determine a ground material type based on said input measurements to produce a classification output.

[217] According to an embodiment of the invention, said system is configured to perform said method according to any one or more embodiments.

[218] According to an embodiment of the invention, said system comprises one or more ground modifier(s) comprising: a wheelbase; a ground modification arrangement comprising an earthwork tool; and wherein said one or more ground modifiers comprises at least one sensor of said one or more sensors.

[219] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more ground modifier comprises said one or more sensors. [220] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one ground modifier of said one or more ground modifiers is an excavator further comprising: a motor; a transmission; a body portion comprising a cab; wherein said ground modification arrangement is moveably fixated to said body portion and wherein said ground modification arrangement comprises: a boom; an arm moveably mounted to an end of said boom; and a bucket moveably mounted to an end of said arm.

[221]

[222] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is configured to determine a ground material type of a ground material being moved by said ground modifier.

[223] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more vibration sensors.

[224] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one vibration sensor is arrange on a ground modification arrangement of said ground modifier.

[225] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more inertial measurement units configured to generate IMU data.

[226] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said one or more inertial measuring units is positioned on the earthwork tool of the ground modifier.

[227] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said one or more inertial measuring units is positioned on an arm of said ground modifier and/or on a boom of said ground modifier and/or on a stick of said ground modifier and/or on a tilt rotator of said ground modifier and/or on a body portion of said ground modifier.

[228] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises at least two inertial measurement units, such as at least two inertial measurement units, such as at least three inertial measurement units, such as at least four inertial measurement units. [229] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more one gyroscope.

[230] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors includes one or more accelerometer.

[231] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more mass measuring units.

[232] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more mass measuring units comprises at least one load cell.

[233] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more optical sensors.

[234] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors include one or more camera(s) configured for imaging said ground material to establish image data.

[235] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data includes said image data.

[236] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises at least one ground penetrating radar.

[237] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises one or more pressure sensors configured to measure a hydraulic pressure of cylinders of a ground modification arrangement of said ground modifier.

[238] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises sensors configured to measure a travel distance of hydraulic pistons of said ground modifier.

[239] According to an embodiment of the invention, said one or more sensors comprises a strain gauge. [240] According to an embodiment of the invention, said strain gauge is arranged to measure a force exerted on any one or more components of said ground modifier during said moving of said ground material.

[241] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a machine learning model.

[242] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a supervised machine learning model and/or an unsupervised machine learning model and/or a reinforcement learning model.

[243] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model.

[244] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a supervised classification model.

[245] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model comprises one or more from the list comprising: a gradient boosting model, a decision tree, a random forest model, a support vector machine, a neural network model, a Bayesian based model, a logarithmic model, a Boltzmann machine, a probability based model, Markov model, an elastic net model.

[246] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a neural network based model.

[247] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model includes at least one convolutional neural network.

[248] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model comprises a recurrent neural network.

[249] According to an embodiment of the invention, said classification model is a neural network model and/or a multilayer perceptron, a convolutional neural network model and/or a recurrent neural network model and/or a long short-term memory network model and/or a gated recurrent unit network.

[250] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model comprises two or more neural network based models.

[251] According to an embodiment of the invention, said two or more neural network based models are different types of neural network models.

[252] According to an embodiment of the invention, a last neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models is configured to classify said ground material type based on an output received from a previous neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models.

[253] According to an embodiment of the invention, a last neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models is a fully connected neural network classification model.

[254] According to an embodiment of the invention, a last neural network based mode of said two or more neural network base models is a multilayer perceptron model.

[255] According to an embodiment of the invention, a first neural network based model of said two or more neural network based models is a convolutional neural network and/or a recurrent neural network, and wherein said first neural network based model is configured to provide an output to a next neural network based model or to said last neural network based model.

[256] According to an embodiment of the invention, at least one of said two or more neural networks based models is a recurrent neural network.

[257] According to an embodiment of the invention, a first neural network is a convolutional neural network and wherein a second neural network of said two or more different types of neural network based models is a recurrent neural network configured to receive an output from said convolutional neural network and further configured to provide an output to a last neural network based model or to a next neural network based model.

[258] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model comprising a feature extraction module having an input layer and an output layer.

[259] According to an embodiment of the invention, said classification model comprises a classification module having an input layer and an output layer; and wherein an output layer of said feature extraction module is connected to said input layer of said classification module.

[260] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model: a recurrent neural network module having an input layer and an output layer; a classification module having an input layer and an output layer; and

[261] According to an embodiment of the invention, an output layer of said recurrent neural network module is connected to an input layer of said classification module.

[262] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is a classification model comprising: a feature extraction module having an input layer and an output layer; a recurrent neural network module having an input layer and an output layer; a classification module having an input layer and an output layer; and wherein an output layer of said feature extraction module is connected to said input layer of said recurrent neural network module, and wherein an output of said recurrent neural network module is connected to an input layer of said classification module.

[263] According to an embodiment of the invention, said feature extraction module is a convolutional neural network.

[264] According to an embodiment of the invention, said feature extraction module is a recurrent neural network. [265] According to an embodiment of the invention, said recurrent neural network module is a long short-term memory network.

[266] According to an embodiment of the invention, said recurrent neural network module is a gated recurrent unit network.

[267] According to an embodiment of the invention, said classification module is a multilayer perceptron model.

[268] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is an ensemble model.

[269] According to an embodiment of the invention, said system comprises a training module configured to train said classification model on the basis of labelled training input measurements to establish a trained classification model.

[270] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model used for determining ground material type is a trained classification model established by training a classification model on the basis of labeled training input measurements.

[271] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is trained on the basis of labeled training input measurements.

[272] According to an embodiment of the invention, said labelled training input measurements comprises training input measurements labelled with a known ground material type associated with said training input measurement; and wherein each of said training input measurements are established based on measured ground material related data of moved ground material of said known ground material type

[273] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training input measurements may comprise ground modifier characteristics.

[274] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training of said classification model comprises: receiving training input measurements; generating labelled training input measurements by individually labelling said training input measurements in accordance with said known ground material type associated with said training input measurements; establishing a training data set on the basis of said labelled training input measurements; providing said classification model; training said classification model based on said training data set to establish a trained classification model.

[275] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training input measurements and/or said input measurements undergo pre-processing before being utilized for said training or said determining said ground material type, respectively.

[276] According to an embodiment of the invention, said preprocessing includes denoising.

[277] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data of a moved known ground material is obtained by: establishing a modified training terrain by moving said known ground material of said training terrain using a ground modifier; and obtaining said ground material related data of said moved known ground material to establish said ground related data of a moved known ground material.

[278] According to an embodiment of the invention, each of said labelled training input measurements comprises a training input label designating a ground material type and a data array based on said ground material related data of a moved known ground material.

[279] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data and said ground material related data included in said training input measurements comprises the same data types.

[280] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground material related data included in said training input measurements is obtained from a plurality of ground modifiers. [281] According to an embodiment of the invention, said ground characterizing model is trained using backpropagation.

[282] According to an embodiment of the invention, said system comprises a data server.

[283] According to an embodiment of the invention, said data server comprises said analyzer module.

[284] According to an embodiment of the invention, said data server comprises a receiver module configured to at least receive input measurements; and a transmitter module configured to at least transmit ground material type.

[285] According to an embodiment of the invention, said data server comprises a receiver module configured to at least receive training input measurements; and a transmitter module configured to at least transmit a trained ground characterizing module to one or more ground modifiers.

[286] According to an embodiment of the invention, said data server comprises said training module.

[287] According to an embodiment of the invention, said data server is a cloud server.

[288] According to an embodiment of the invention, said training of said ground characterizing model is performed by a cloud server at least based on labeled training input measurements received from a sub-set of said one or more ground modifiers, wherein said ground modifiers are associated with selected operators registered to perform labeling of said training input measurements.

[289] According to an embodiment of the invention, metadata is registered to said ground material type to generate a log.

[290] According to an embodiment of the invention, said log is stored on a data log. [291] According to an embodiment of the invention, said log is stored on said data server.

[292] According to an embodiment of the invention, said metadata comprises elevation and geographical location registered to each determined ground material type of said ground material.

[293] According to an embodiment of the invention, said metadata comprises a timestamp registered to each determined ground material type.

[294] The invention relates to use of system according to any one or more of the claims 300-350 to perform the method according to any one of more of the claims 100- 150.

[295] The invention relates to use of a ground modifier according to any one or more of the claims 200-350 to perform the method according to any one or more of the claims 100-150

[296] The ground material determination system and the ground modifier may provide similar advantages to the method of determining a ground material type based of a ground material.

The drawings:

[297] Various embodiments of the invention will in the following be described with reference to the drawings where fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a method steps of a method of determining a ground material type according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 2 illustrates a schematical representation ground modifier with a camera and an analyzer according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 3 illustrates a schematical representation of a ground modifier with IMU sensors according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 4a illustrates a schematical representation of an analyzer module according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 4a illustrates a schematical representation of an analyzer module according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 5a illustrates a schematical representation of an analyzer module according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 5b illustrates a schematical representation of a ground modifier performing a test sequence according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 6a-f illustrates a representation ground material related data according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 7 illustrates a schematical representation of a ground material determination system according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 8. illustrates a schematical representation of a ground material determination system comprising a data server with an analyzer, fig. 8b illustrates a ground material determination system with a training module receiving training input measurements from multiple ground modifiers according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 9 illustrates a schematical representation of a training module according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 10 illustrates a schematical representation of a model trainer according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 11 illustrates a schematical representation of a classification model according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 12 illustrates a schematical representation of a neuron according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 13 illustrates a schematical representation of a convolutional neural network according to an embodiment of a ground material characterizing model of the invention,

Fig. 14 illustrates a schematical representation of a classification module comprising a multilayer perceptron according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 15 illustrates a schematical representation of a VGG16 classification model according to an embodiment of a ground characterizing model of the invention, fig. 16 illustrates a schematical representation of a part of a recurrent neural network according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 17 illustrates a schematical representation of a classification model comprising a long short-term memory network and a classification module according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 18 illustrates a schematical representation of a classification model comprising a feature extraction module, a recurrent neural network module and a classification module according to an embodiment of the invention, fig. 19 illustrates an ensemble model according to an embodiment of a ground material characterizing model of the invention, fig. 20 illustrates an ensemble model comprising feature extraction modules and recurrent neural network modules according to an embodiment of a ground material characterizing model of the invention.

Detailed description

[298] The following description comprises nonlimiting examples of embodiments of the invention. Details such as a specific method and system structures are provided to give an understanding of embodiments of the invention. Note that detailed descriptions of well-known methods, systems, devices, circuits, components including, e.g., control leads, etc. have been omitted to not obscure the description of the invention with unnecessary details. Notice that the invention is not limited to the specific examples described below, and a person skilled in the art may choose to implement the invention in other embodiments without these specific details. Furthermore, a skilled person in the field of the invention may choose to combine features of the described embodiments and of the illustrated embodiments of the invention. As such, the invention may be designed and altered in a multitude of varieties within the scope of the invention, as specified in the claims.

[299] Briefly, the invention relates to a method of determining a ground material type and to a ground modifier capable of determining ground material type, and to a ground material type determination system.

[300] The method, system and ground modifier utilize measurable ground material related data to determine a ground material type of a ground material of a terrain being modified by a ground modifier. Various measurable data may be utilized to determine the ground material type. Nonlimiting examples of ground material related data may comprise one or more of the following different types of data, including, camera imaging data of the ground material, multispectral imaging of the ground material, ground modifier motor RPM, ground penetrating radar data acquired from the ground material, spectroscopy data based on hyperspectral imaging of the ground material, and data obtained from one or more inertial measurement units positioned on a ground modifier moving ground material, hydraulic pressure data from cylinders of the ground modifier.

[301] The ground material related data may be understood to include any directly or indirectly measurable and/or obtainable data and/or parameter and/or metric that varies depending on the ground material type of a ground material being processed by a ground modifier. E.g., as a ground modifier engages with a ground material when processing ground material, e.g., by performing a ground modification including moving ground material, several different types of ground material related data may vary depending on the ground material type of the ground material. E.g., when a ground modifier performs a cut into a terrain, a scraping, or a pushing of ground material, the earthwork tool of the ground modifier touches the ground material, e.g., as it cuts through the terrain. This may cause movement of the ground modifier and also vibrations, which may propagate via/through the earthwork tool to the whole or at least parts of the ground modification arrangement and in principle to the whole ground modifier. These vibrations and motions may be measurable by, e.g., one or more inertial measurement units positioned on the ground modifier, and because the vibration and motions measured by the one or more inertial measurement units varies depending on the ground material type of the ground material being handled and/or processed, the ground material type may be determined by analyzing the ground material related data measured by the inertial measuring units.

[302] Each of the inertial measurement units comprise one or more accelerometers and one or more gyroscopes. Hence, inertial measurement units may provide triaxial acceleration and triaxial angular velocity measurement. The IMU sensors may therefore measure motion and they may therefore also be sensitive to the mentioned vibrations that occur in the ground modifier or at least parts of the ground modifier when modifying a terrain.

[303] Inertial measurement units may also be utilized to determine a spatial position of a tool point (a blade and/or tip) of an earthwork tool, including, e.g., a bucket of an excavator if IMU sensors are positioned on the parts of the excavator that moves the earthwork tool (see. e.g. fig. 3). The position of the tool point may be accurately determined, especially when coupling the measurements of the inertial measuring units with global navigation satellite system data obtained via, e.g., one or preferably two global navigation satellite system receivers arranged on the ground modifier together with the inertial measurement units. Since operators operate ground modifiers, including the earthwork tool differently, sometimes slightly differently (but recognizable in data), depending on the ground material type of the ground material being handled, the tracked tool point position data may also be utilized as ground material related data, to determine the ground material type. Examples of ground modification operations that may be performed differently by operators of ground modifiers depending on the ground material type include, e.g., digging, scraping, pushing, pulling, compressing, offloading, moving ground material, e.g., by lifting, to name a few non-limiting examples. E.g., an operator may move the earthwork tool of a ground modifier at different velocities, or choose to position the earthwork tool differently depending on the ground material type of the ground material being handled. E.g., when moving loose sand that is not a very cohesive ground material, an operator may choose to keep the bucket of an excavator less open, to avoid spilling the sand during the moving of the material, while when moving more cohesive materials such as, e.g., clay, the operator may keep the bucket in a more open position during the movement to perform the operation faster, because the clays is less prone to fall off the bucket during the moving operation. As mentioned, these differences in movement is sensed by the inertial measuring units and may be tracked by tracking the tool point position as described above. This tracking of the tool point position may thus also be analyzed alongside the other mentioned types of ground material related data to determine the ground material type. The tracking of the tool point position may be based on relatively low frequency IMU data. The vibrations that is senses by an IMU during terrain modification with a ground modifier may typically be present also in higher frequency content of the IMU data.

[304] The difference in the way the operator operates the ground modifier during processing of different ground materials may also be represented in the motor rpm, which may therefore also be utilized as ground material related data. Moreover, when processing more dense material, the motor of the ground modifier must operate harder compared to when processing less dense materials. Utilizing motor rpm as ground material related data may thus have the effect of improving the accuracy with which the ground material type may be determined. [305] A camera may optionally be utilized to acquire images of ground material. Since different ground material types look different, these images may be utilized as ground material related data to determine the ground material type of a ground material.

[306] A ground penetrating radar may optionally be applied to obtain ground material related data of ground material. Ground penetrating radar data may advantageously vary across different ground material types, because the ground material types has different electromagnetic properties.

[307] We note that according to the invention, not all the mentioned types of ground material related data may necessarily be applied to determine ground material type of a ground material. E.g., sometimes a camera is not mounted on a ground modifier, in which case it may be advantageous to utilize other ground material related data to determine ground material type. Another ground modifier may not comprise inertial measurement units, in which case it may be advantageous to utilize other ground material related data to determine ground material type.

[308] according to embodiments of the invention, one of the mentioned types of ground material related data is utilized to determine ground material. However, other embodiments of the invention may utilize a combination of any two or more of the different types of ground material related data. This may advantageously improve the accuracy with which the ground material type may be determined.

[309] In some embodiments of the invention, the determination of ground material type is based on further data, including, e.g., predetermined ground material type characteristics and ground modifier characteristics. Both ground material related data and ground modifier characteristics may be utilized as input measurements to an analyzer and/or to a ground characterizing model, to determine ground material type of a ground material and/or may, e.g., be used as training input measurements used for training a ground characterizing model.

[310] Predetermined ground material type characteristics may relate to predetermined knowledge of different ground material types, including, e.g., ground material density, but also predetermined ground material related data measured, e.g., for during various ground modification processes, including digging, scraping, lifting, compressing, pushing and pulling. The predetermined ground material related data may optionally be measured during a test movement of a ground modifier, wherein the ground modifier handles material in a predefined way. These data may sometimes also be referred to as historical ground material related data. The predetermined ground material related data for different ground material types may be used for comparison with ground material related data supplied as input measurements to determining the ground material type. This operation is typically performed by an analyzer module. The predetermined ground material related data of various different ground material types may be stored together in a library, which may also comprise predetermined ground material characteristics for the different ground material types.

[311] Ground modifier characteristics may refer to different data associated with the ground modifier. These data may include, e.g., the volume of ground material that an earthwork tool may contain when full, motor specifications, kinematic model of the machine utilized to determine position of the tool point based on tool point position data, type of ground modifier, etc., to name a few non-limiting examples.

[312] Ground material type may be determined in various different ways and based on ground material related data and optionally based on further types of information/data, including predetermined ground material type characteristics and ground modifier characteristics. Some embodiments of the invention may advantageously utilize machine learning, and other embodiments may, advantageously, determine ground material type of a ground material without utilizing machine learning. Determining ground material type of a ground material without utilizing machine learning may be advantageous in that it does not require training data to train the surface characterizing model. Determining ground material type of a ground material using machine learning may be advantageous in that the accuracy with which the ground material type is determined may be more accurate, when training data is available for training of the ground characterizing model. We note that some optional embodiments may utilize unsupervised machine learning models. Using unsupervised machine learning models may however provide a less accurate determination of ground material type compared to supervised machine learning models.

[313] The following section comprises a detailed description of the invention with reference to the figures.

[314] Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of method steps MS1-MS3 of a method of determining a ground material type according to an embodiment of the invention. The method is a computer implemented method in the sense that at least the step of analyzing the ground material on the basis of a ground characterizing model and input measurements is computer implemented. The method may, e.g., be performed using a ground material type detection system and/or using a ground modifier according to embodiments of the invention, including, e.g., the systems illustrated in fig. 7-9, and the exemplified ground modifiers illustrated in fig. 2-3.

[315] In a first method step Ml, a modified terrain is established by moving ground material of a terrain using a ground modifier. Examples of a ground modifiers that may be utilized for the step of modifying a terrain is illustrated in, e.g., fig. 2, fig. 3 and fig. 5. In this step a ground modifier engages with the terrain to move ground material of the terrain. Typically the moving of ground material would be performed using an earthwork tool of the ground modifier.

[316] In a further method step MS2, input measurements are established by measuring ground material related data of the moved ground material. The input measurements may thus represent the measured ground material related data. However, the input measurements may also, e.g., correspond to the measured ground material related data.

[317] In an addition method step MS3, a ground material type is determined by analyzing the input measurements based on a ground characterizing model.

[318] In a preferred optional embodiment of the invention the step of analyzing the input measurements may include that the ground characterizing model receives the input measurements to produce a classification output based on the input measurements. The classification output may comprise the ground material type determined by the ground characterizing model based on the input measurements.

[319] Fig. 2 illustrates a ground modifier according to an embodiment of the invention. The ground modifier is configured to perform the method of determining a ground material type according to the invention, including, e.g., the method illustrated and described in relation to fig. 1.

[320] The ground modifier GM comprises a sensor, which in this embodiment is a camera CA, a wheel base WB, a ground modification arrangement GMA with an earthwork tool ET having a tool point TP. The ground modifier further comprises an analyzer module AM with a ground characterizing model GCM and an input measurement receiver IMR. Moreover, this exemplified ground modifier comprises a body portion BP to which the ground modification arrangement GMA is fixated. The body portion BP is arranged on top of the wheel base that is configured to enable the ground modifier to move. The wheelbase may comprise wheels, a continuous track (sometimes referred to as caterpillar tread, tank treads or crawlers) or other arrangements which enable the ground modifier to move on a ground surface. The ground modification arrangement GMA is configured to move the earthwork tool ET to perform ground modification using the earthwork tool ET. Ground modification may include moving of ground material. Such moving of ground material may comprise, e.g., digging, scraping, compressing the terrain etc., to name a few nonlimiting examples of ways the ground modifier may move ground material, e.g., to modify a terrain. The tool point may represent the whole tip of the earthwork tool and not necessarily only a point on the tip. The tip may sometimes also be referred to as a blade.

[321] In this embodiment of the invention, the sensor is a camera CA, but other embodiments of the invention may utilize different sensors. The camera CA is arranged on the body portion BP of the ground modifier and is configured to automatically measure ground material related data, which in this embodiment is images acquired by the camera. The camera is positioned such that it is able to acquire images of ground material being moved by the ground modifier GM, using the earthwork tool ET. The camera is connected to the input measurement receiver IMR of the analyzer module AM, and thereby, the analyzer module receives images acquired by the camera as input measurements via the input measurement receiver. The received input measurements is then received by the ground characterizing model GCM, which analyzes the ground material based on the received input measurements, to determine the ground material type of the ground material. In this exemplified embodiment, the ground material type is determined for ground material being moved by the ground modifier GM.

[322] The sensor, in this example a camera, may supply ground material related data to the analyzer module repeatedly. The analyzer module may thereby repeatedly determine the ground material type based on the repeatedly received ground material related data.

[323] Optionally, the camera is configured to automatically move according to the position of the earthwork tool. Advantageously, this ensures that the earthwork tool may be within the field of view of the camera CA. Thereby the camera may be able to acquire images of ground material while it is being moved by the earthwork tool. The movement of the camera may be performed by an electric motor, which is controlled according to the tool point position (the spatial position of the tool point).

[324] Optionally, the ground modifier comprises a plurality of cameras configured to acquire images of ground material. E.g., ground material being moved by the earthwork tool of the ground modifier.

[325] Optionally, the ground modifier may comprise a data server configured to log into a data log the determined ground material type of a ground material. The logging may optionally comprise logging the geographical location and elevation from which the ground material was being moved as metadata together with the logged material type. Advantageously, the data log may thereby comprise documentation of which ground material type was removed and from where it was removed. [326] Optionally the geographical location and elevation of the tool point may be determined based on position information obtained based on a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and based on inertial measurement units positioned on the parts of the ground modifier that may move to change the position of the tool point. Optionally, the ground modifier may comprise two global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers.

[327] Optionally, the ground modifier may comprise a display configured to receive a representation of the ground material type determined by the analyzer module, and to display a representation of the ground material type. The display may, e.g., display the ground material type as the name of the ground material type, e.g., ‘clay’, sand, etc. Thereby, an operator of the ground modifier is informed about the ground material that the operator is handling during the ground modification work.

[328] Optionally, the ground modifier GM may comprise one or more inertial measurement units configured to measure ground material related data.

[329] Optionally, the inertial measurement unit utilized in embodiments of the invention may comprise one or more magnetometers.

[330] Fig. 3 illustrates an excavator EX with IMU sensors that performs ground modification, according to an embodiment of the invention. The excavator EX is an example of a ground modifier according to the invention. The excavator EX may perform ground modification as well as perform the method of determining a ground material type according to embodiments of the invention, including, e.g., the method illustrated and described in relation to fig. 1. In this exemplified embodiment, the excavator EX is modifying a terrain into a modified terrain MTR, by moving ground material GRM from the terrain.

[331] The excavator EX is similar to the ground modifier illustrated in fig. 2 in that both of these ground modifiers comprises a wheelbase WB, a body portion BP, a ground modification arrangement GMA, and an analyzer module comprising an input measurement receiver IMR and a ground characterizing model GCM. The excavator EX further comprises an earthwork tool in the form of a bucket BU and four inertial measuring units IMU1-IMU4. In this embodiment of the invention, the inertial measurement units are utilized to measure ground material related data, which is provided as input measurements to the analyzer module AM via the input measurement receiver IMR, to determine the ground material type of ground material GRM moved by the excavator EX based on the ground characterizing model GCM of the analyzer and the received input measurement provided to the ground characterizing model GCM. As described previously, the inertial measuring units may obtain measures of vibrations and movements of the ground modifier that occur as it engages with ground material. The ground material characterizing model GCM exploits that these movements and/or vibrations may vary across different types of ground material types, to determine the ground material type based on input measurements established based on the readings of the inertial measurement units IMU1-IMU4.

[332] The inertial measurement units IMU1-IMU4 repeatedly sample the ground material related data during the ground modification. In this embodiment all the data are passed on to the analyzer module via the input measurement receiver IMR. Hence, ground material type is repeatedly being determined by the ground characterizing model GCM.

[333] Optionally, only data from one inertial measurement unit, such as only data from two inertial measurement units, such as only data from three inertial measurement units is provided as input measurements to the input measurement receiver. Advantageously, providing less data to the input measurement receiver has the effect that less data is to be processed by the analyzer module, hence facilitating faster processing, which is advantageous.

[334] On the embodied excavator, the inertial measuring units IMU1-IMU4 are positioned on moveable parts of the excavator EX that may change the position of the bucket when moved. More specifically, a first inertial measurement IMU1 is positioned on a linkage LN of the ground modification arrangement GMA near the bucket BU, a second inertial measurement unit IMU2 is positioned on the arm AR of the ground modification arrangement GMA, a third inertial measurement unit IMU3 is positioned on the boom BO of the ground modification arrangement, while a fourth inertial measurement unit IMU4 is positioned on the body portion BP. The inertial measurement units IMU1-IMU4 is connected via wire to the analyzer module AL via the input measurement receiver IMR. Notice that it is within the scope of the invention to utilize both wired and wireless connections between sensors and relevant modules such as the analyzer module.

[335] Notice, that in this exemplified embodiment of an excavator according to the invention, an inertial measuring unit is position on the major moveable parts of the excavator. This, advantageously, makes it possible to track the position of the bucket BU, or the tool point of the bucket. As described earlier, tracking the position of the tool point may be utilized for determining the ground material type of a ground material because operators operate a ground modifier differently depending on ground material type.

[336] Optionally, the ground modifier comprises a tool point position tracking module configured to track a tool point position based on input from one or more inertial measuring units. Optionally, the tracked tool point position is provided as input measurements to the analyzer module. This may have the effect that the tracked tool point position may be utilized to determine the ground material type. This may further improve the accuracy with which the ground material type is determined.

[337] Optionally, the excavator may include a camera configured to automatically image ground material being moved by the ground modifier. In this optional embodiment of the invention, both imaging data obtained by the camera and dater from the inertial measurement units may be provided as input measurements to the analyzer unit, is provided as input measurement to the input measurement receiver.

[338] Fig. 4a illustrates a schematical representation of an analyzer module AM configured to output a ground material type determined by the analyzer module AM based on a ground characterizing model GMC of the analyzer module and based on predetermined ground material type characteristics PGMTC and input measurements, which in this embodiment include ground material related data GMRD. Examples of ground material related data is given in fig. 6a-f. The analyzer module AM may be implemented on a ground modifier and in a ground determination system according to embodiments of the invention.

[339] A library (not illustrated) may comrprise predetermined ground material type characteristics PGMTC for a plurality of different predefined ground material types. The library may be external to the analyzer module or be included in the analyzer module. An external library may further be included in a cloud server or a data server.

[340] The predetermined ground material type characteristics may comprise predetermined ground material related data and other predetermined information related to the determination of ground material types.

[341] In a first example, ground material related data in the form of IMU data from one IMU positioned on an earthwork tool of ground modifier is received by the ground characterizing model GCM. Examples of IMU data is illustrated in, e.g., fig. 6b-c and fig. 6e-f. The ground characterizing model further receives predetermined ground material type characteristics for predetermined ground material types, which in this example is predetermined IMU data from an IMU positioned on an earthwork tool of a ground modifier. The ground characterizing model then performs a similarity analysis between the received IMU data and the received predetermined IMU data for various predetermined ground material types, to determine which of the predefined ground materials that has predetermined IMU data that provides a closest match to the received IMU data. The predetermined ground material type associated with the closest matching predetermined IMU data is then determined as the ground material type GMT by the ground characterizing model GCM. In this first example, the determined ground material type GMT is gravel.

[342] In this first example, both the raw IMU data, and fused IMU data was used to determine the ground material type. An example of both of these types of IMU data from an earthwork tool of a ground modifier is illustrated in fig. 6b-c and in fig. 6d-f. The similarity analysis may be performed for sequences of IMU data of different lengths. In this first example, IMU data of a length of 10 seconds where utilized. Hence, for every 10 seconds, the analyzer module AM may determine and output a ground material type GMT, as long as the analyzer module receives input measurements and has access to predetermined ground material type characteristics for predefined ground material types. In this example, the predetermined ground material types include clay, gravel, sand, bedding sand, mason sand, fill sand, bentonite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, silt, loam, crushed stone, limestone, granite, basalt.

[343] The analyzer module AM may receive predetermined ground material type characteristics from an external library of predetermined ground material type characteristics for a plurality of predefined ground material types, however, the analyzer module may also comprise such library. The library may be updated with additional predefined ground material types and additional predetermined ground material related data, and with other predetermined ground material type characteristics.

[344] The similarity analysis may be based on different types of similarity analysis and/or different types of dis-similarity analysis utilizing different metrics. E.g., the similarity between the ground material related data and the predetermined ground material type characteristics may be determined by comparing metrics of each of the two. E.g. comparing the variance, the standard deviation, the mean, the average, the root mean squared, to name a few non-limiting examples of metrics that may be used for the comparison. The data may optionally also be integrated to enable comparison of integrated data.

[345] Optionally, the similarity analysis is performed based on a correlation between the ground material related data and the predetermined ground material type characteristics for each predetermined ground material type included in the predetermined ground material types.

[346] Optionally, the similarity analysis comprises a comparison based on euclidian distance between a running average of the ground material related data and a root mean squared average of the predetermined ground material type characteristics. [347] The approach described in relation to fig. 4a, including the similarity analysis may, advantageously, be utilized for any ground material related data as long as corresponding predetermined ground material related data has been obtained for a plurality of predetermined ground material types and has been registered as predetermined ground material type characteristics.

[348] According to an embodiment of the invention, the ground material relate data and/or the predetermined ground material related data of the predetermined ground material characteristics is pre-processed by a pre-processing module. The preprocessing may advantageously comprise denoising of the data. The pre-processing module may be included in the analyzer module or it may be positioned external to the analyzer module.

[349] According to an embodiment of the invention, a Fourier transformation is applied to IMU data before the IMU data is received by the ground characterizing module.

[350] In a second example, the analyzer module applies a Fourier transformation is applied to the ground material related data GMRD before it is received by the ground characterizing model GCM. In this second example, the ground material related data is IMU data. Based on the received Fourier transformed ground material related data, the ground characterizing model determines the ground material type GMT. Optionally, the ground material type GMT is determined based on the amplitudes of the Fourier transformed IMU data and by comparing these amplitudes to amplitude thresholds associated different ground material types.

[351] Optionally, the IMU data comprises IMU data from at least two IMUs arranged on the same ground modifier. This may improve the accuracy with which ground material type is determined.

[352] For simplicity reasons, the analyzer is illustrated without an input measurement reiver, however, ground material related data may be received as input measurements by an input measurement receiver included in the analyzer module. [353] Fig. 4b illustrates a schematical representation of an analyzer module AM configured to determine ground material type GMT based on a ground characterizing model GCM, predetermined ground material type characteristics (PGMTC) and further based on input measurements, which in this embodiment comprises ground material related data GMRD and ground modifier characteristics GMC.

[354] In a first example, the ground material related data from a ground modifier comprises mass measurements of ground material being moved by the ground modifier. These mass measurements may be acquired based on one or more loadcells arranged on the ground modifier or based on one or more strain gauges or other sensors. The ground material related data further includes image data from a camera acquiring images of an earthwork tool of the ground modifier. The image data is acquired such that it includes ground material being located in the earthwork tool and being moved by the earthwork tool. The ground modifier characteristics includes the earthwork tool volume. The earthwork tool volume represents the interior volume of the earthwork tool. The ground characterizing model receives the earthwork tool volume, the image data and the mass measurements. The volume of ground material is then estimated based on the received earthwork tool volume and based on the image data. Intuitively, it may be understood that it is possible to identify a fullness of the earthwork tool volume based on the image data and by using this fullness together with the earthwork tool volume, the volume of ground material contained in the earthwork tool is estimated. The mass measurements is then divided by the estimated volume of the ground material to determine an estimated density of the ground material. The received predetermined ground material type characteristics comprises a predetermined density for each of the predefined ground material types. Each of the predetermined densities are then compared to the estimated density, and the ground material type is selected among the predetermined ground material types as the predetermined ground material type having a density closest to the estimated density.

[355] For simplicity reasons, the analyzer is illustrated without an input measurement reiver, however, ground material related data may be received as input measurements by an input measurement receiver included in the analyzer module. [356] Fig. 4b illustrates a schematical representation of an analyzer module AM configured to determine ground material type GMT based on input measurements and predetermined ground material type characteristics PGMTC. The input measurements include ground material related data GMRD, tool point position information TPPI. The analyzer module may be utilized by ground modifiers and ground material type determination systems according to embodiments of the invention.

[357] The analyzer module may perform ground material detection in the same way as the analyzer modules described in relation to fig. 4a and fig. 4b, however, in addition to these analyzer modules, the analyzer module AM illustrated in fig. 5a may further utilize tool point position information TPPI to determine ground material type GMT of a ground material type. The tool point position information TPPI comprises information of the tool point of an earthwork tool of a ground modifier. By tracking tool point position information, it is possible to establish a trajectory of the tool point over time, e.g., as the tool point moves to modify a terrain. Furthermore, it is possible to establish specific types of motions that earthwork tool is performing. These motions of the earthwork tools may be referred to as ground modification motions. Examples of ground modification motions comprise, e.g. digging into ground material, moving ground material, lifting, lowering, sideway motions, offloading, scraping etc., to name a few non-limiting examples. Based on the tool point position information TPPI, the analyzer module AM is thereby able to selectively only utilize input data measured when the tool point is performing one or more ground modification motions. This may ensure that the ground material type is determined based on data measured when a ground modifier is actually performing a ground modification, which is advantageous.

[358] Embodiments of the invention, including, e.g., embodiments of the invention utilizing a supervised classification model as ground characterizing model, may in a similar way also only utilize ground material related data acquired during specific ground modification motions, e.g., including one or more of the following non-limiting examples: during digging into ground material, during offloading, during moving of ground material. Moreover, the supervised classification models may also receive tool point position information as training input measurements and/or as input measurements. This advantageously enable the models to take into account the particular ground modification motions, performed by the ground modifier. However, this also enables the classification models to utilize the changes in tool point position over time, including accelerations and velocities, which may improve the performance of the classification models.

[359] Optionally, the analyzer module may comprise a tool point position module configured to determining ground modification motions based on tool point position information.

[360] Optionally, the ground modification motions may be determined by a tool point position module positioned external to the analyzer module. Optionally, the ground modification motions determined by a tool point position module positioned external the analyzer module may be included in the tool point position information provided to the ground characterizing model.

[361] For simplicity reasons, the analyzer is illustrated without an input measurement reiver, however, ground material related data may be received as input measurements by an input measurement receiver included in the analyzer module.

[362] Fig. 5b illustrates a schematical representation of a ground modifier GM performing test movements TM1, TM2. The ground modifier GM comprises a ground modification arrangement with an earthwork tool ET, which in this exemplified embodiment is a bucket with a tool point TP. The tool point may be understood as the full blade of the earthwork tool and not just as a point on the blade of the tool or tip of the tool. Different earthwork tools may have different blades, and the different blades may have different geometries. The tool point position of a tool point may thus optionally represent the position of the full blade, including the shape of the blade.

[363] The ground modifier GM further comprises an analyzer module AM with an input measurement receiver IMR and an IMU positioned on the earthwork tool ET. The ground modifier is performing two examples of test movement TM1, TM2 and ground material related data is measured during the test movements. Thereby the ground material related data is measured during a controlled test movement. This may advantageously increase the accuracy with which the ground material type is determined by the analyzer, irrespective of which type of ground characterizing model is utilized. Notice, that according to an embodiment of the invention, predetermined ground material related data may also be measured during one or more test movements, including the illustrated test movements TM1, TM2. Moreover, training input measurements may be based on ground material related data measured during one or more test movements according to an embodiment of the invention.

[364] In a first example, the earthwork tool ET, in this exemplified embodiment a bucket, is in a baseline position, which in this case is a closed position where the earthwork tool contains ground material (not illustrated). The closed position is the illustrated position of the earthwork tool ET. In this state or position, the ground material does not easily fall out of the bucket. Having the earthwork tool ET in a closed position, the operator (not illustrated) of the ground modifier is performing a first test movement TM1, by moving the earthwork tool ET upwards a predefined distance from the baseline position, while keeping the earthwork tool in the closed baseline position. In this first example, the predefined distance is 50 centimeter. However, in other embodiments of the invention, the predefined distance may be more or less that 50 centimeter.

[365] In a second example, the second test movement TM2 is performed by moving the bucket downwards a predefined distance, while keeping the bucket in the same closed baseline position. In this second example, the predefined distance is 50 centimeter. However, in other embodiments of the invention, the predefined distance may be more or less than 50 centimeter.

[366] Optionally, the ground modifier may automatically during ground modification identify when the tool point of an earthwork tool is moving according to a test movements of a set of predefined test motions. Advantageously, an operator of a ground modifier may keep working while the ground modifier automatically registers the test motions. [367] According to an embodiment of the invention, the predefined test motions comprise a plurality of different test motions.

[368] Optionally, a complete test motion may comprise a test sequence comprising multiple test motions. E.g. the first test motion TM1 followed by the second test motion TM2. Optionally, a test sequence may be performed with the second test movement TM2 being performed first and the first test movement TM1 being performed after the second test movement TM2.

[369] Optionally, the operator is informed via a visual information on a display in the ground modifier (not illustrated) or via audio, about when the position of the bucket is in a baseline position.

[370] In a third example, IMU data from one or more inertial measurement units acquired during either the first test movement TS1 or during the second test movement T2, is utilized to determine ground material type of the ground material that is contained in the earthwork tool while a test movements is being performed. In this example one inertial measuring unit IMU is positioned on the earthwork tool. The first test movement involve an acceleration followed by an abrupt stop of movement. This particular acceleration followed by a fast deceleration of the earthwork causes vibrations in the ground modifier, and most prominent in parts of the ground modification arrangement of the ground modifier. These vibrations thus affect especially IMU data from inertial measurement units positioned on the ground modification arrangement, including the inertial measurement units of this example, which is positioned on the earthwork tool. IMU data from the inertial measurement unit is received by the analyzer module which transform the IMU data from a function of time into a function of frequency. In other word, a frequency spectrum of the IMU data is generated. In this example, both fusion data and the raw IMU data is utilized.

[371] By analyzing the frequency spectrum of the IMU data, the ground characterizing model determines a ground material type. This may be done in several ways. E.g., by comparing the IMU data collected during the test motion to historical data or by using a similarity analysis as described in relation to fig. 4a. [372] Optionally, the frequency spectrum of IMU data may be provided as input measurements to a trained classification model according to embodiments of the invention. The trained classification model may thus determine ground material type based on a frequency spectrum of the input measurements, e.g., measured during one or more test movements according to an embodiments of the invention.

[373] In this exemplified embodiment, the ground modifier comprises an analyzer module AM. However, optionally, the analyzer module is located in a data server external to the ground modifier or the analyzer module is part of a cloud computing environment, e.g., part of a cloud server. Hence, a ground modifier may optionally comprise a transmitter to enable the ground modifier to transmit the required data to an external server comprising an analyzer module. When utilizing an analyzer module of a cloud server or another data server, the ground modifier does not necessarily require an onboard analyzer module.

[374] Fig. 6a-f illustrates graphical representations of ground material related data according to an embodiment of the invention. The illustrated ground material related data may be utilized as input measurements and as training input measurements to be used for determining ground material type or for training a ground characterizing model, respectively, according to, e.g., various embodiments of a method, a ground material determination system and a ground modifier according to the invention.

[375] Fig. 6a-c illustrates ground material related data measured for the ground material of the ground material type gravel. Fig. 6d-f illustrates ground material related data measured for a ground material of the ground material type rock. The measurements are acquired during ground modification using a ground modifier using different inertial measurement units.

[376] Fig.6b and fig 6e represents data from an inertial measurement unit positioned on a boom of a ground modifier, in this case an excavator, fig. 6c and fig 6f represents data from an inertial measurement unit positioned on a bucket of the ground modifier, in this case an excavator. More specifically, fig. 6b-c and fig. 6e-f shows the boom angle BOA and the boom acceleration BOAC of the boom, and the bucket angle BUA and bucket acceleration BUAC, respectively, as a function of time, in this case over a period of 100 seconds. Acceleration is represented in milli g, while angle is represented in degrees.

[377] Fig.6a and fig. 6b represents tool point height TPH in meters and machine heading MH in degrees for the ground material type gravel and rock, respectively. As a function of time. Again over a time period of 100 seconds. These two data types are determined from the data output of inertial measurement unit(s). The machine heading is related to the rotation performed by the body portion of the ground modifier, while the tool point height is the elevation of the tool point height.

[378] Notice that the data represented in fig. 6a-6c which relates to gravel is collected from the same ground modifier simultaneously, while the data represented in fig. 6d-fig.6f is also measured simultaneously.

[379] Alt the fig. further illustrates various movements of the ground modifier determined based on IMU data. These movements may sometimes be referred to as ground modification motions. Illustrated ground modification motions comprises: digging DIG, body rotation BRO, offloading OFL.

[380] Several differences may be observed between the illustrated ground material related data for the two ground material types, rock and gravel. E.g., it may be appreciated that during digging, digging into the ground material, the Boom acceleration BOAC data and the bucket acceleration BUAC data shows very different characteristics. E.g., the variation in the acceleration is much larger for rock compared to for gravel. The acceleration for rock produces much larger accelerations. This difference may advantageously be utilized for discriminating between different ground material types. This discrimination may be performed based on various different analytical, e.g. similarity analysis, or machine learning based analysis according to embodiments of the invention under guidance by the present application. Similarity analysis may based on various metrics such as, e.g. variance, standard deviations, and types of comparison methods including correlation, simple thresholding, etc. [381] fig. 7 illustrates a schematical representation of a ground material type determination system GMDS according to an embodiment of the invention.

[382] Advantageously, the ground material type determination system may be used to perform the method of determining a ground material type described in relation to fig. 1. The system may also be arranged on a ground modifier, including the ground modifier described in relation to fig. 2 and the ground modifier described in relation to fig.3. Notice that these illustrated ground modifiers utilize different types of sensors. One is implemented with inertia measurement units, while the other comprises a camera.

[383] The system comprises one or more sensors arrangeable on a ground modifier and configured to measure ground material related data of a ground material when arranged on a ground modifier. The illustrated system GTDS comprises one sensor SEI. The sensors SE2 - SEn are optional and indicates that the system may optionally comprise multiple sensors. The sensor are connected to an input measurement receiver IMR of an analyzer module AM. Thereby, the sensor SI provides measured ground material related data as input measurements IM to the analyzer AM via the input measurement receiver IMR. The input measurements are received by a ground characterizing module, which determine the ground material type of the ground material based on the received input measurements, and produces a classification output CO comprising the determined ground material type. The sensors may measure ground material related data at different frequencies, depending on the type of sensor.

[384] Optionally, the sensors include at least on inertial measurement unit.

[385] Optionally, the sensors include at least one camera.

[386] Optionally, the ground characterizing model is a trained classification model.

[387] Fig. 8. illustrates a schematical representation of a ground material determination system comprising a cloud server CS and a ground modifier GM. Advantageously, the ground material type determination system GTDS may be used to perform the method of determining a ground material type described in relation to fig. 1. The ground modifier GM of the system may include the ground modifiers described in relation to fig. 2 and fig. 3. Notice, however that these ground modifiers includes an onboard analyzer module, which the ground modifier schematically illustrated in fig. 8 does not.

[388] The illustrated ground material type determination system GTDS comprises a ground modifier GM comprising two sensors SEI, SE2, a receiver, a display DP and a transmitter. The sensors SEI, SE2 measures ground material related date, which is transmitted as input measurements via the transmitter TSM to an analyzer module AM of a cloud server CS. The analyzer module AM comprises a ground characterizing model, which receives the input measurements and determine a ground material type based on the received input measurements. The determined ground material type is transmitted back to the ground modifier as a classification output, where it is received by the receiver. The received classification output comprising the determined ground material type is displayed on the display.

[389] To illustrated that the system may comprise more than two sensors, an additional optional sensor SEn is illustrated. The system may optionally comprise more than two, such as more than three sensors, such as at least four sensors, such as at least six sensors.

[390] Optionally, at least one of the sensors is an inertial measurement unit.

[391] Optionally said cloud server comprise a data log configured to log the determined ground material type into a data log.

[392] Optionally, the cloud server may be a data server located external to the ground modifier.

[393] Optionally, the cloud server may be configured to receive input measurements from a plurality of different ground modifiers; and to separately determine ground material type for each individual ground modifier based on input measurements associated with the individual ground modifier. [394] Optionally, the cloud server may utilize parallel processing when determining ground material type. Advantageously, this enables faster processing, which is especially advantageous when receiving input measurements from a plurality of ground modifiers at the same time.

[395] Optionally, the ground characterizing model may be a classification model. E.g., a trained classification model. The trained classification model may optionally be trained using the training module described in relation to fig. 9.

[396] Fig. 8b illustrates a schematical representation of a ground material determination system comprising multiple ground modifiers GM1-GM6, according to an embodiment of the invention. The cloud determination system further comprises a cloud server CS with a training module TM and an analyzer module AM comprising a ground characterizing model GCM.

[397] A subset of ground modifiers GM3-GM6 provides training input measurements TIM to the training module of the cloud server CS. Each of these training input measurement TIM1-TIM3 being established based on measurements of ground material related data of ground material having a known ground material type. The ground material related data may preferably be measured from ground material being moved by the ground modifier to modify a terrain. In this example, the training input measurements TIM1-TM3 provided by each of the ground modifiers GM4-GM6 are based on ground material of different ground material types.

[398] The training input measurements may be used to generate a ground characteristics library comprising ground material type characteristics. The ground material type characteristics may be utilized by the analyzer module to determine ground material type. E.g. ground material type characteristics comprised by the ground characteristics library may be compared to input measurements, and the ground material type may then be selected based on this comparison.

[399] The training input measurements may also be used to train a ground characterizing model according to various embodiments of the invention, based on the training described in various embodiments of the invention. In this exemplified embodiment, the analyzer module is located in the cloud server. However, optionally, the ground characterizing model trained by the training model may be transmitted to analyzer modules on ground modifiers. Thereby, these ground modifiers may utilize a trained module to determine ground material type without requiring to transmit input measurements. This is advantageous, e.g., in situations where it is not possible to communicate with the data server. This may occur on, e.g., in locations where there is no mobile network connection.

[400] Another subset of ground modifiers GM1-GM3 provides input measurements IM1-IM3 to the analyzer module AM of the cloud server CS. The analyzer analyzed the received input measurements from each ground modifier separately and separately returns a ground material type determined based on the received input measurement back to the ground modifier. E.g. ground modifier GM1 is modifying a terrain by moving ground material. During the this process, the ground modifier utilizes sensors to measure ground material related data of the ground material being moved by the ground modifier GM1. The ground modifier GM1 then transmits the ground material related data as input measurements IM1 to the AM, which analyses the received input measurements IM1 to determine a ground material type. The determined ground material type GMT1 is then transmitted from the cloud server back to the ground modifier. A representation of the ground material type GMT1 may be visualized on a display of the ground modifier. Transmission of data may be based on a variety of data transfer technologies.

[401] The analyzer may process incoming input measurements in parallel. This means that a plurality of input measurements received from different ground modifiers may be processed parallelly, which is advantageous.

[402] Fig. 9 illustrates a schematical representation of a training module according to an embodiment of the invention. The training module may advantageously be used to train a ground characterizing model, when the ground characterizing model is a classification model. The training makes the classification model capable of determining ground material type. The training of such ground characterizing model may thus establish a trained ground characterizing model, which in this embodiment is a trained classification model. The trained classification model may advantageously be used as a ground characterizing model to determine ground material type of a ground material. Hence, the trained classification model may be implemented as ground characterizing model in the ground material determination systems described in relation to fig. 7 and fig. 8, and it may further be implemented in the ground modifiers described in relation to fig. 2 and 3.

[403] The training module TM is configured to train a classification model CM, such that the classification model CM becomes capable of determining a ground material type of a ground material, by means of a plurality of predefined ground material types PGMT. The predefined ground material types PGMT may be considered predefined classes of ground material types that the trained classification model is able to classify a ground material into. The training is based on training input measurements TIM and predefined ground material types PGMT. The training system TS comprises a training input measurement receiver TIMR, a training input measurement labeler TIML, a training dataset generator TDSG and a model trainer.

[404] The training input measurement receiver TIMR receives training input measurements TIMs, which are based on ground material related data of ground material with a known ground material type. The training input measurements TIM are passed on to the training input measurement labeler TIML, which also receives the predefined ground material types PGMT. The training input measurements TIM are then labelled with at least one of the predefined ground material types PGMT, utilizing the training input measurement labeler TIML. The label thereby associates ground material related data obtained from ground material with a known ground material type, with at least one predefined ground material type, via the labelling of the training input measurement (TIM). See examples from one embodiment in fig. 6a-f, which may be considered a graphical representation of training input measurements and/or input measurements and or ground material related data. The training input measurements of fig. 3 may be labelled to produce labeled training input measurements LTIM, as it contains ground material related data in the form of output from an inertial measurement unit, which is useable as training input measurements TIM. In the illustrated examples of fig. 6a-c, the label is gravel, whereas in fig, 6d-f, the label is rock.

[405] [0264] The training dataset generator TDSG collects the labeled training input measurements LTIM from the training input measurement labeler TIML, and generates a training data set on the basis of the labeled training input measurements LTIM. The training dataset TDS is then received by the model trainer MT along with the classification model CM, and the model trainer TM then trains the classification model (CM) based on the received training dataset. The output from the training of the classification model is a trained classification model TCM.

[406] Advantageously, the trained classification model may be provided to, e.g., an analyzer module, in which the trained classification model TCM may be utilized as a ground characterizing model to determine ground material type of a ground material based on input measurements. In other words the trained classification model may be utilized to classify ground material into predefined ground material types based on input measurements.

[407] In a first example, labelled training input measurements are established by labelling the training input measurements according to predefined ground material types, which is selected at least among the ground material types (classes) clay, sand, loam, gravel and rock. A training dataset is then established based on the labelled training input measurements, and the classification model is trained using this particular training dataset, to provide a trained classification model. Since the model was trained based on predefined ground material types comprising clay, sand, loam, gravel and rock, the trained classification model is able to classify input measurements of ground material into these particular classes.

[408] The input measurements and training input measurements may comprise ground material related data measured using different sensors. However the training of the classification model may be performed based on any sensor data according to various embodiments of the invention and on any data derived from these sensors. This may include ground material related data from one or more inertial measurement units, from one or more cameras, from one or more ground penetrating radars, from one or more load cells, volumetric measures of moved ground material volume based on generated ground surfaces, data from one or more strain gauges, data related to motor RPM of a ground modifier, from optical sensors including laser based sensors etc.

[409] Optionally, the classification model may comprise an unknown class, to enable the trained classification model to classify an input measurement into the unknown class. Advantageously, the unknown class enable classification into an unknown class when the input measurement represents, e.g., a ground material type that is unknown to the trained classification model. Optionally, the unknown class may be utilized when the probability of the input measurement belonging to a certain predefined ground material type (class) is below a certainty threshold. Thereby, minimizing the false positive rate of the classification model.

[410] Optionally, the training module may be included in the ground material type determination system. This advantageously enable the system to train a classification model.

[411] Optionally, the training module may be implemented on a cloud server, including the cloud server illustrated in fig. 8 and in fig. 8b.

[412] Optionally, the trained classification model may be trained based on labelled training data obtained from training input measurements from a plurality of ground modifiers. Advantageously, this may provide a more robust trained classification mode, which may be able to provide good performance when applied to input measurements from different ground modifiers. Optionally, the trained classification model may be trained further be trained based on training input measurements form different types of ground modifiers. This enables the trained classification model to determine ground material type based on input measurements received from different types of ground modifiers, which is advantageous.

[413] Fig. 10 illustrates a schematical representation of a model trainer according to an embodiment of the invention. [414] The model trainer MT may, for example, be implemented as part of the embodied training module illustrated in fig. 9. Advantageously, the model trainer may be used to train a classification model CM and hence, the model trainer MT may provide a trained classification model TCM based on the classification model, training input measurements and associated training input labels. Advantageously, the trained classification model TCM may, e.g., be used with embodiments of the ground material type determination system of the invention, with embodiments of a ground modifier according to embodiments of the invention, and with embodiments of the method of determining a ground material type of a ground material of the invention, to determine ground material type based on input measurements. The operations performed by the model trainer MT may be computer implemented.

[415] The model trainer MT comprises an error calculation module ECM, a classification model optimizer CMO, and a provided classification model CM comprising classification model parameters CMP.

[416] In a first training iteration, the provided classification model CM receives training input measurements TIM from a training dataset TDS comprising labelled training input measurements. The classification model then classifies the training input measurements TIM into one or more predefined ground material types, and thereby provides a training classification output TCO comprising a determined (classified) ground material type for each training input measurement. The error calculation module ECM receives the training classification outputs TCO and the training input labels TIL, each of which are associated with the corresponding training input measurements TIM from which the training classification output is generated. The error calculation module ECM compares the training classification output TCO with the training input labels TIL, to determine a training error TE. The training error TE represents a degree of classification wrongness, e.g., represented by a representation of a difference between the training classification outputs TCO and the associated training input labels TIL. The classification model optimizer CMO then adjusts the classification model parameters CMP to generate updated classification model parameters UCMP. [417] Advantageously, the error calculation module ECM and the classification model optimizer CMO may cooperate to provide iterative training of the classification model CM, such that the classification model parameters are adjusted to minimize training error. This may be achieved in various ways according to the invention, such as, e.g., based on various types of optimization methods, e.g., including iterative optimization algorithms configured to update the classification model parameters such that the training error are minimized. The optimization algorithms may include calculating training error based on a cost function, wherein the cost function is dependent on the classification model parameters. Thus, determining a minimum of such cost function provides updated classification model parameters associated with a minimized training error (minimized cost) across the whole training dataset or across a batch of the training dataset. Nonlimiting examples of iterative optimization algorithms that may be implemented to provide updated classification model parameters UCMP may, e.g., include gradient descent types of algorithms, e.g. stochastic gradient descent, and other types of gradient descent types of algorithms. Alternative embodiments of the invention may also utilize different types of cost functions. The choice of cost function may depend on the implementation of the invention. Further nonlimiting examples of cost functions include least squares mean, multi-class cross entropy loss, and Kullback Leibler Divergence loss. However, it is within the scope of the invention to utilize other cost functions.

[418] The optimization algorithm may comprise a learning rate parameter that specifies the step size for each iteration. More specifically, in each training iteration, the classification model parameters are updated stepwise, such that the cost function are minimized step by step towards a minima of the cost function. The learning rate specifies the size of each such step towards a minima of the cost function taken during an iteration of the optimization algorithm. Selecting a large learning rate may yield faster convergence of the model, meaning that determination of the updated classification model parameters UCMP that provides a minimal training error (minimal cost) is determined fast. However a large learning rate may result in overshoot of the minima. Selecting a smaller learning rate results in a slower descent towards the minima of the cost function, however, the chance of converging towards a global minimum of the cost function rather than towards a larger local minima of the cost function, is improved. The learning rate may be predetermined by a user, and/or the learning rate may be varied across training iterations. A user may experiment with different learning rates and select the learning rate that represents a good compromise between fast convergence, and an acceptable training error (cost).

[419] Optionally, the optimization algorithm may comprise an adaptive learning rate. Non-limiting examples of optimization algorithms with an adaptive and/or varying learning rate include, e.g., root means squared propagation, which may be considered an extension of gradient descent and the AdaGrad version of gradient descent. Root mean squared propagation uses a decaying average of partial gradients in the adaptation of the step size for each parameter. Advantageously, the use of a decaying moving average allows the algorithm to focus on the most recently observed partial gradients seen during the progress of the search.

[420] Optionally, a training termination condition may specify when to terminate training of the classification model. The training termination condition may be based on various conditions, including e.g. a predetermined number of training iterations, a predetermined training error, and a measure of the change in training error between one or more training iterations. The training termination condition may vary according to different implementations of the invention, and may further comprise combinations of one or more of, e.g., the mentioned training termination conditions and/or of other training termination conditions.

[421] Optionally, the training data set TDS may be grouped into one or more training data batches that each comprises a subset of training data. The classification model may then be trained on each training data batch. This form of training may also sometimes be referred to as batch learning. The training may be performed iteratively, such that the classification model parameters from a previous iteration are utilized to initiate the next training iteration where training is performed with a next training data batch. Advantageously, this may improve the training error TE and thereby it may improve the performance of the trained classification model. The training may also be performed without initiating the model with the classification model parameters determined form a previous training based on a previous training data batch.

[422] Optionally, the training of the classification model may be performed multiple times based on the same training dataset. Advantageously, this may improve the model performance. The number of passes of the entire training dataset that the classification model CM should completed during training of the model may be specified with the term ‘epoch’. Hence, one epoch indicates that the classification model CM has been trained based on one pass of the training dataset, two epochs indicates that the classification model has been trained based on two passes of the training dataset, etc. The optimal number of epochs may be determined in various ways depending on the implementation of the invention, including, e.g., based on the early stopping method. The number of epochs may, e.g., also be determined manually by continuing the training until the performance of the classification model does not improve further, as manually evaluated based on different model performance metrics. Model performance metrics may, e.g. advantageously be based on or more of the following metrics: confusion matrix, type I error, type II error, accuracy, recall, precision and Fl -score, specificity, ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics curve) curve, ROC curve AUC (area under the curve) score, PR score.

[423] Optionally, the training termination condition may comprise a predetermined number of epochs.

[424] Optionally the number of epoch may be based on a change in one or more model performance metrics. E.g., the training termination condition may specify a threshold value for difference in one or more model performance metrics between epochs. When that threshold (training termination condition) is exceeded and/or reached, the training is terminated.

[425] Optionally, the model initiation strategy may include transfer learning, wherein the classification model parameters are initiated based on a pre-training using a pre-training training dataset. More specifically, the classification model parameters are adopted from a pre-training, wherein the classification model has been trained using pre-training training data. Advantageously, transfer learning enables the classification model to utilize knowledge gained from training on the pre-training training dataset to classify ground material type. A nonlimiting example of a pretraining dataset may, e.g., be the ImageNet dataset, which comprises a large amount of image-label pairs comprising an image of an object and an associated label that defines the class of the object of the image. The ImageNet data set may, e.g., be utilized when imaging data from one or more camera sensors is used to determine ground material type. Notice that it is within the scope of the invention to apply transfer learning based on different various datasets.

[426] Optionally, the error calculation model and the training model parameter optimizer may be comprised by one module comprised by the model trainer. E.g., the classification model optimizer CMO may comprise the error calculation module, in some embodiments of the invention or the error calculation module may comprise the classification model optimizer.

[427] Optionally, the training may be based on various types of backpropagation. This may, e.g., be advantageous when utilizing a neural network type classification model, including, e.g., convolutional neural network classification models, recurrent neural network type models, multilayer perceptron models, but also other types of neural network models.

[428] It should be understood that in case a trained classification model performs worse based on testing compared to previous trained classification models, the model with the best performance may, advantageously, be utilized. Furthermore, training of a classification model may be based on a previous model that has already been trained. In fact transfer learning based on previous trained models may be applied, starting with any of the previously trained classification models, and not only the most recently trained model. Also, as the training data set grows, the classification model may be trained from scratch, without any prior knowledge from previous models. Multiple classification models may be trained and evaluated, and the trained classification model that provides the best performance may be selected and applied for classification of input measurements. As mentioned previously, the trained classification model may, e.g., be implemented in a cloud computing environment, including the system comprising a cloud server described in relation to fig. 8 and fig. 8b, according to embodiments of the invention. When implementing the trained classification model in a cloud computing environment, the classification model may be made accessible to various users, via, e.g., different ground modifiers, and/or via ground material determination systems according to various embodiments of the invention. Furthermore, the classification output provided by the classification model may be distributed to relevant users via different computing devices, including e.g., smart devices, tablets, smartphones, laptops, personal computers etc. This may advantageously be utilized by, e.g., a project manager involved in a building project.

[429] Fig. 11 illustrates a schematical representation of a classification model according to an embodiment of the invention.

[430] More specifically, the illustrated classification model is an example of a neural network classification model. The neural network classification model may be trained according to the training described in various embodiments of the invention, and using the training module of the invention, including, for example, the training module illustrated in fig. 9. When trained, the neural network classification model may be considered an example of a ground characterizing model and more specifically, a ground characterizing model of the type trained classification model, according to the invention. The trained classification model may be used in ground material type determination systems and ground modifiers according to embodiments of the invention, including, for example, the system illustrated in fig. 7 and fig. 8 and the ground modifiers illustrated in fig. 2 and fig. 3. Hence, when trained, the trained classification model may be utilized as ground characterizing model in a method of determining a ground material type according to the invention, including the method described in relation to fig. 1. The embodied neural network classification model consists of sets of neurons arranged in layers and wherein each neuron of a layer is connected with each neuron of the next layer, and with each neuron of the previous layer. In that sense, the neural network may be considered a fully connected neural network. Other embodiments of the classification model may include a neural network classification model that is not a fully connected neural network.

[431] The neural network classification model illustrated in fig. 25 comprises an input layer IL comprising a number of neurons INl-INn, a number of hidden layers HL, and wherein each hidden layer comprises a number of hidden neurons HN11 - HNnn. The network further comprises a number of output neurons ONI - ONn, and a set of weights Wl, W2, wherein each connection between neurons in the hidden layer(s) and between a hidden layer and the output layer OL is associated with at least one weight. The individual weights of the sets of weights W1,W2 is illustrated as lines connecting the neurons. In addition to the weights, each layer except for the input layer may comprise a bias (not shown). The input layer IL is configured to receive input measurements IMl-IMn, and further configured to pass these input measurements to the next layer, which is the first hidden layer HL. The hidden layers provides input to the neurons ONI -ONn of the output layer OL, which in turn outputs ground material types GMT1- GMTn- The ground material type classes that is outputted is based on predefined ground material types.. A classification output CO is then determined based on the ground material types GMT 1 -GMTn. The ground material types may be understood as classes.

[432] The neural network classification model may be trained based on a training dataset and based on a training algorithm such as, e.g. backpropagation including variations of training algorithms based on different types of backpropagation. Notice that other training algorithms may also be used, and that the skilled person would be able to select such different training algorithm if this would be beneficial. Nevertheless, alternatives to backpropagation based training algorithms may typically be less efficient. When the neural network classification model is trained, a trained classification model is obtained in form of a trained neural network classifier.

[433] The trained neural network classifier may then be utilized to determine ground material type. In a classification scenario, the input layer of the trained neural network classification model receives input measurements IMl-IMn. The received input measurement are then passed to each neuron HN11-HN In of a first hidden layer HL. Each neuron of the first hidden layer of the hidden layers (HL) then outputs a response based on the received input measurement, the weights W 1 and a bias (now shown). The response is received by each neuron HN21-HNnn of the second hidden layer of the hidden layers HL, which each in turn outputs a response based on the received response from the first hidden layer, based on the individual weight associated with each neuron, and based on a second bias (now shown). The response of each neuron in the last hidden layer is received by each neuron in the output layer OL. Each neuron in the output layer then outputs a ground material type GMTl-GMTn based on the response received from the last hidden layer and based on an output activation function.

[434] In this example, the output activation function is a SoftMax function, which outputs a relative probability for each class of ground material type GMTl-GMTn. In principle many other types of activation functions could be utilized as the output activation function.

[435] In an optional step, a classification output CO may be determined based on the output of the output activation function. The classification output CO may e.g. be determined as the largest value of each of the outputted ground material types GMTl- GMTn. When a SoftMax activation function is utilized as output activation function, the largest value of the values of the ground material types GMTl-GMTn would correspond to ground material type having the largest relative probability given the input measurements. This ground material type would then be determined as the classification output, and hence, would be the determined ground material type of the ground material associated with the input measurements.

[436] The neural network classifier could be trained to classify a multitude oif different ground material types by training the neural network classifier based on a labeled training input measurements comprising the ground material types that the network should be able to classify. Examples of such different ground material types is described elsewhere in this disclosure. [437] Fig. 12 illustrates a schematic representation of a neuron of a neural network classification model, according to an embodiment of the invention. The neuron could, e.g., be a neuron of a neural network classifier such as that illustrated in fig 11.

[438] In principle the illustrated neuron could be an example of both a neuron of a hidden layer as well as an example of a neuron of an output layer of a neural network. The main difference between these two mentioned types of neurons being a difference in activation function AF. In this example the neuron is a neuron of a hidden layer, such as the hidden layer neuron HN21 of the neural network classifier illustrated in fig. H.

[439] In this particular example, the hidden layer neuron HN21 calculates a weighted sum of the output from three hidden layer neurons of an upstream hidden layer HN11, HN12, HN13, using the weights W2. A bias is added to the weighted sum. Each layer comprises one bias parameter. Notice that in this example, W2 represents individual weights associated with each output from the hidden neurons HN11, HN12, HN13. The weighted sum with the bias added is then fed to an activation function AF, which calculates an output NO based on the received weighted sum plus the bias. The activation function can thereby be said to determine the output of the neuron or the neuronal output NO. Some activation functions may e.g. be chosen to enable the neural network classifier to learn complex relationships such as, e.g., non-linear relations between an input measurement and the ground material type associated with that input measurement. In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, each hidden layer neuron and each output neuron of the embodied neural network classification model comprises an activation function. However, in other embodiments of the invention not all neurons may comprise an activation function. Non-limiting examples of activations functions of hidden layer neurons of a neural network classification model that may be utilized to determine ground material type includes, e.g., the sigmoid function, tanh function, exponential linear units, selfexponential linear units, the ReLU function (rectified linear unit), leaky ReLU function, parametric ReLU function, self-gated activation function, among others. [440] Advantageously, ReLU type functions have a derivative function and allows for backpropagation, while simultaneously making it computationally efficient. It further enables the neural network classification model to learn nonlinear relations. Further advantageously, since with ReLU functions only a certain number of neurons are activated, meaning that the output of the neuron is non-zero, the ReLU function is far more computationally efficient, e.g., when compared to e.g. the sigmoid and tanh functions. Furthermore, ReLU function accelerates the convergence of gradient descent towards the global minimum of the loss function due to its linear, nonsaturating property.

[441] In some situations, the ReLU function may results in dead neurons, e.g., neurons that outputs only zero values, thereby diminishing the flexibility and/or complexity of the neural network classifier. In this case, the leaky ReLu function, which has a small slope in the negative area of the function, may be applied instead to alleviate this problem. Alternatively, if the leaky ReLU function fails to alleviate the problem of dead neurons, the parametric ReLU function may be applied instead. The parametric ReLU function comprises a slope parameter that may be learned during backpropagation.

[442] [0308] In deep neural networks, e.g., networks deeper than forty layers, the self-gated activation function may advantageously be applied.

[443] [0309] The activation function of the output neurons of a neural network classification model according to an embodiment of the invention may comprise an activation function different to the activation functions applied in the hidden layers of the network. Examples of activation functions of the output layer comprises, e.g., sigmoid function, and the SoftMax function.

[444] Fig. 13 illustrates a schematic representation of a ground material characterizing model, according to an embodiment of the invention. Specifically, the illustrated ground material characterizing model is a classification model and more particularly an example of a convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM. The convolutional neural network classification model may be trained according to the training described in various embodiments of the invention, and using the training module of the invention, including, for example, the training module illustrated in fig. 9. When trained, the convolutional neural network classification model may be considered an example of a ground characterizing model and more specifically, a ground characterizing model of the type trained classification model, according to the invention. The trained convolutional neural network classification model may be used in ground material type determination systems and ground modifiers according to embodiments of the invention, including, for example, the system illustrated in fig. 7 and fig. 8 and the ground modifiers illustrated in fig. 2 and fig. 3. Hence, when trained, the trained convolutional neural network classification model may be utilized as ground characterizing model in a method of determining a ground material type according to the invention, including the method described in relation to fig. 1. In short, the convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM may advantageously be used to classify ground material type of a ground material. The convolutional neural network classification model may exploit spatial relationships in the input measurements, which comprises the ground material related data. Thus, convolutional neural network classification models may be useful on input measurements comprising, e.g., image data and data from one or more inertial measurement units. However, the convolutional neural network classification model may be utilized to determine ground material type based on any input measurements that is based on ground material related data. This include data from inertial measurement units, data from ground penetrating radars, etc., as already described.

[445] The convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM comprises a feature extraction module FEM followed by a neural network model NNM. The neural network model NNM classifies ground material type and generates a classification output based on a feature extraction output FEO received from the feature extraction module FEM. The feature extraction module FEM is configured to receive a matrix as input measurement IM, and to extract features of the matrix to generate the feature extraction output FEO. The matrix may, e.g., represent an image of ground material, e.g., ground material being moved. The size of the matrix and its number of dimensions, depends on the input measurements. E.g., the number of dimensions of the matrix may in case of input measurements comprising data from several inertial measurement unit comprise multiple dimensions. Moreover, if the input measurements represents hyperspectral imaging, the matrix would also comprise more than two dimensions. The matrix may comprise data representing several types of ground material related data. E.g., the matrix may comprise both an image data and data from one or more inertial measurement units. The input measurements may be raw data, however, the input data may also be pre-processed data, which have been pre-processed in different ways, e.g., smoothed, filtered, converted, normalized, etc. The required matrix format of the input measurements may be achieved by generating a matrix representation input measurements if the raw or preprocessed data is not already arranged in a matrix format As an example, images of a ground material acquired with a camera may be represented as a multidimensional matrix representing the area of the image in two dimensions, while the further dimension(s) would typically comprise the three color channels: red, green and blue. Notice, that ground related data that is not in a matrix format, may be reshaped to matrix format to be used as input measurements to the convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM. An example of multidimensional data includes hyperspectral imaging of the ground surface, since many wavelengths may be acquired, in which case, the matrix representation of the input data may comprise multiple dimensions. When using hyperspectral imaging data as input measurement, the matrix representation may e.g. comprise two dimension representing the actual area of the image, and multiple further dimensions each representing, e.g., a portion and/or a wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. When using data from one or more inertial measurement units, the triaxial acceleration data and the triaxial angular related data may be represented by different dimensions of the matrix. Independent of which kind of ground material related data that is utilized with the convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM, the matrix representation of the input measurements is received by the feature extraction model as input measurements IM.

[446] The feature extraction module FEM comprises at least one convolutional layer CL, and optionally a following pooling layer. The convolutional layer comprises at least one kernel (sometimes also referred to as a filter). Typically, the feature extraction module may perform better when using multiple kernels in each layer, since this enables the feature extraction model to learn more features of the input measurements. For similar reasons, the classification model also typically comprises more than one convolutional layer, since this enables the model to learn more complex features of the input measurements, and hence, enable the model to perform better. Each kernel of a layer is individually convolved with the input measurement IM, to extract features from the input measurement IM. If the model comprises more than one convolutional layer, the output of the first convolutional layer is received by the next convolutional layer, and so forth. Again optionally, the output of a convolutional layer is typically received by a pooling layer, as mentioned above. So, typically, a convolutional layer comprises a plurality of kernels to enable extraction of a plurality of features, to enable better performance of convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM. The kernel is a small matrix with a size that is less than the size of the input measurement. The size of the kernel may vary depending on the particular implementation of the embodiment of the invention, and may, e.g., be based on empirical testing of the model with different filter sizes. The filter is moved across the height and width of the input measurements and the dot product of the kernel and the image are computed at every spatial position of the filter. The length by which the kernel slides across the input measurement IM is the stride length. Different stride lengths may be tested to determine the stride length that provide the optimal performance of the convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM. The stride length may be part of what is sometimes referred to as the hyper parameters of the model. The hyperparameters may be tuned based on evaluation of the model performance, e.g. based on empirical testing of the model, wherein the hyper parameters are varied for each training and test iteration, and ultimately, the best performing model of the trained and tested models are chosen as the trained classification model. The actual coefficients of the kernels are determined based on training of the network, and the training of the network is performed following the previously described methodology, and thereby the training is based on a training dataset with labeled training input measurements. Optionally, when the convolutional layer comprises multiple kernels, the output of each kernel may be stacked, and an activation function may be applied to the stack of kernel outputs. Advantageously, by applying activation functions, the classification model may learn complex non-linear features of the input measurements, as previously discussed in relation to the neural network classification model described in relation to fig. 11. Various different types of activation functions including, e.g., ReLU functions and/or tanh functions may be used, however, other activation functions may also be utilized, as discussed elsewhere in this disclosure.

[447] Following a convolutional layer, the pooling layer PL may optionally be arranged to receive the output of the convolutional layer CL. The pooling layer reduces the size of the feature extraction output (sometimes referred to as feature maps) outputted by the convolutional layers and thereby may speed up the computation of training and ground material type classification of the classification model. Advantageously, max pooling may provide a good performance in the context of determining a ground material type of a ground material. Nevertheless, embodiments of the invention is not limited to using max pooling, and so, e.g., average pooling and other types of pooling may also be utilized, depending on the particular implementation of the invention. In short, using max pooling; from each patch of a feature map (the output of a convolution with a kernel of the convolutional layer CL), the maximum value is selected to create a feature map with a reduced size. In average pooling; from each patch of a feature map (the output of a kernel of a convolutional layer CL), the average value is selected to create a reduced feature map. The size of the map outputted by the pooling layer depend on the size of the patch applied in the pooling layer, and may further depend on the stride length of the applied patch. To reduce computer resources required to perform a ground material classification using the convolutional neural network classification model and the computer resources required to train the classification model, the patch size and stride length may be determined such that the output of the pooling layer reduces the size of the feature map received from the convolutional layers substantially. On the other hand, reducing the feature maps may result in loss of information and degraded performance of the classification model. The optimal hyper parameters, e.g. the stride length and patch size (sometimes referred to as kernel) of the one or more pooling layers may be selected by training the model using different hyper parameters and then comparing each of the trained model, and then selecting the classification model with the best classification performance, or alternatively, selecting the model with the best compromise between classification performance and required computer resources.

[448] The feature extraction output of the feature extraction module is the result of the input measurement being convolved with kernels of the convolutional layer and with the kernels of the pooling layers of the feature extraction module. The feature extraction output is flattened to a vector. Then this vector is fed to a classification module CLM, which in this exemplified embodiment comprises a neural network model, e.g. a multilayer perceptron model MLPM, the output of which is the classification output. The classification module may in other embodiments of the invention comprise other types of classifiers.

[449] Fig. 14 illustrates a schematic representation of a neural network model. In this exemplified embodiment of the invention, the neural network model is a fully connected neural network model (sometimes referred to as a multilayer perceptron model MLPM). Nevertheless, other embodiments of the invention may utilize neural network models that is not fully connected neural network models. The multilayer perceptron model MLPM of this embodiment may, for example, be utilized in the classification module CLM of the convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM illustrated in fig. 13, for producing a classification output CO comprising a ground material type of a ground material, based on a feature extraction output received from a feature extraction module FEM.

[450] In this exemplified embodiment, the multilayer perceptron model MLPM comprises a flattening layer FL, which flattens the feature extraction output into a vector, an input layer IL, a hidden layer HL, and an output layer OL, which are all fully connected. After the multilayer perceptron model MLPM, a classification output determiner COD is arranged to receive the output of the output layer OL, and based on this output, determine a classification output CO. The classification determiner COD is an optional feature, which may be omitted in embodiments of the invention, when it is preferred to obtain the output of the output layer. E.g. when it is preferred to obtain a relative probability of an input measurement belong to each of the classes of ground material types. This may e.g. be achieved when the output layer comprises a SoftMax activation function.

[451] The flattening layer flattens the received feature extraction output FEO to a vector and then feeds each value of the vector to each neuron in the input layer of the multilayer perceptron model MLPM. Weights, bias, and activation functions of the layers are then applied as previously described in relation to the description of the neural network model illustrated in fig. 11, and in relation to the description of a neuron of a neural network illustrated in fig. 12.

[452] The output of the output layer is the relative probability for each ground material type of the predefined ground material types, including for example, clay, gravel, sand, rock, loam, and so forth, to name a few non-limiting examples. The output of the output layer is received by the classification output determiner COD. The classification output determiner COD then selects a classification output comprising a ground material type. In this example, the classification output is selected by choosing the ground material type with the highest probability. The classification output determiner COD may alternatively be configured to bypass the output of the output layer.

[453] Notice that the training of the convolutional multilayer perceptron model MLPM is performed for the full model, including both the multilayer perceptron model MLPM and the feature extraction module comprising the convolutional layer(s) and the pooling layer(s). Thus, when training the convolutional neural network classification model CNNCM, the training data comprises training examples which consists of training input measurement and an associated known label comprising the actual ground material type of that training input measurement.

[454] In an advantageous embodiment of the multilayer perceptron model MLPM, the model comprises more than one hidden layer. This advantageously has the effect that the model is capable of learning more complex relations between training input measurements and associated labels, and thus it may improve the performance of the multilayer perceptron model MLPM by, e.g., increasing the accuracy of the model. [455] In this exemplified embodiment, the multilayer perceptron model MLPM is illustrated with four neurons in the hidden layer HL. However, as illustrated by the dots shown between the bottom two neurons of the hidden layer HL, the multilayer perceptron model MLPM may comprise additional neurons. Including more neurons may advantageously increase model performance by, e.g. improve the accuracy of the model. Increasing the number of neurons in the network may, however, diminish computational speed. Empirical testing of different model architectures enables the user to select a model with a good ratio between performance and computational speed.

[456] Notice that sometimes a neuron may also be referred to as a perceptron.

[457] Fig. 15 - VGG16 classifier

[458] Fig. 15 illustrates an example of a ground characterizing model implemented as a convolutional neural network classification model, according to an embodiment of the invention. The particular convolutional neural network classification model illustrated in fig. 15 may sometimes be referred to as VGG16. VGG16 can be considered an example of the convolutional neural network classification model described in relation to fig. 13. As such, VGG16 requires training input measurements and input measurements to be received in a matrix format as previously described in relation to the generic convolutional neural network classification model illustrated in fig. 13. Thus, the training input measurements and input measurements applied for use with VGG16 may, e.g., be one or more red, green, blue image(s) of a ground material acquired with a ground modifier comprising camera when the ground modifier is modifying a terrain, e.g., by moving the ground material. The ground modifier includes, e.g., the ground modifier illustrated in fig. 2.

[459] The VGG16 convolutional neural network classification model may be trained according to the training described in various embodiments of the invention, and using the training module of the invention, including, for example, the training module illustrated in fig. 9. When trained, the VGG16 convolutional neural network classification model may be considered an example of a ground characterizing model and more specifically, a ground characterizing model of the type trained classification model, according to the invention. The trained VGG16 convolutional neural network classification model may be used in ground material type determination systems and ground modifiers according to embodiments of the invention, including, for example, the system illustrated in fig. 7 and fig. 8 and the ground modifiers illustrated in fig. 2 and fig. 3. Hence, when trained, the trained VGG16 convolutional neural network classification model may be utilized as ground characterizing model in a method of determining a ground material type according to the invention, including the method described in relation to fig. 1. In short, the VGG16 convolutional neural network classification model may advantageously be used to classify a ground material type of a ground material.

[460] The VGG16 classification model comprises 16 layers with weights that may be determined through training of the classification model. These layers include 13 convolutional layers followed sequentially by a multilayer perceptron model comprising three dense layers DL including the output layer OL. The padding of the convolutional layers is such that the spatial resolution is preserved after convolution (also referred to as same padding). The convolution stride length is set to one pixel. In addition to the convolutional layers, VGG16 comprises five max-pooling layers, which follows some of the convolutional layers. Max-pooling is performed over a 2- by-2 pixel window, with a stride of two. The ReLU activation function is used for each of the convolutional layers and each of the dense layers

[461] In a sequential order from the first convolutional layer to the last output layer of the multilayer perceptron model, the VGG16 model comprises five convolution blocks CB1-CB5.

[462] The first convolution block CB1 comprises two convolution layers CL11, CL12 of 64 channels (channel refers to the number of filters in a layer) with a kernel size of 3-by-3 and same padding, and a max-pooling layer PL1 of 2-by-2 pool size and a stride of two. The first layer CL11 of the first convolution block CB1 receives input measurements. The input measurements are required to be in a matrix format. [463] The first convolution block CB 1 is connected to the second convolution block CB2, which comprises two convolutional layers CL21, CL22, each having 128 channels of 3-by-3 kernels and same padding, and a max-pooling layer PL2 of 2-by-2 and a stride of two.

[464] The second convolution block CB2 is connected to the third convolution block CB3, which comprises three convolutional layers CL31, CL32, CL33, each having 256 channels of 3-by-3 kernels and same padding, and a max-pooling layer PL3 of 2-by-2 and a stride of two.

[465] The third convolution block CB3 is connected to the fourth convolution block CB4, which comprises three convolutional layers CL41, CL42, CL43, each having 512 channels of 3-by-3 kernels and same padding, and a max-pooling layer PL4 of 2-by-2 and a stride of two.

[466] The fourth convolution block CB4 is connected to the fifth convolution block CB5, which comprises three convolutional layers CL51, CL52, CL53, each having 512 channels of 3-by-3 kernels and same padding, and a max-pooling layer PL5 of 2-by-2 and a stride of two.

[467] The fifth convolution block CB5 is connected to the first dense layer of the multilayer perceptron model MLPM via a flattening layer (not shown), which is configured to flatten the output of the fifth convolutional block CB5, meaning that the output of the fifth convolutional block is transformed into a vector. The vector is then received by a first dense layer DL of the multilayer perceptron model MLPM, which comprises 256 neurons. The first dense layer DL1 is connected to the second dense layer DL2, which comprises 128 neurons that is fully connected to the first dense layer DLL The output of the second dense layer is connected to the output layer OL, which comprises a number of neurons corresponding to the number of ground material types (classes) that the model should be able to predict. The neurons of the output layer are fully connected to the neurons of the second dense layer DL2. The output layer outputs a classification output CO, which is the relative probability for each of the classes of ground material types given the input measurement IM. Each of the neurons of the output layer OL represents a class of a ground material type. The relative probability of the classes of ground material types is calculated by the soft-max activation function, utilized by the output layer OL.

[468] Being a convolutional neural network type classification model, the VGG16 classification model requires the input measurements to be in matrix format.

[469] Optionally, classification models of the invention may be trained based on categorical crossentropy loss function. Further optionally, the RMSprob may be utilized to control learning rate. Also, optionally, class weights may be applied to advantageously handle imbalance.

[470] Optionally, transfer learning may be applied to the VGG16 classification model. Transfer learning may be based on, e.g., the ImageNet dataset or other databases suitable for transfer learning.

[471] In addition to the classification models described in relation to the figures, other supervised classification models may advantageously be utilized in different embodiments of the invention. The classification models may receive input measurements in the form of raw input measurements or in the form of input measurements that have been preprocessed in various ways. Furthermore, the classification models may not necessarily be a type of neural network. Indeed, other types of classification models may provide solid performance, e.g., when training data is limited. Non-limiting examples of such other types of classification models that may advantageously be used in embodiments of the invention includes, e.g., various types of decision trees, random forest models, support vector machine models, Bayesian statistical models, logistic models, gradient boosting models including, e.g., XGBoost, probabilistic models including, e.g., Markov models etc. Notice that these models may be trained using the training system of the invention. Furthermore, e.g., elastic net may optionally be used to handle regularization and to reduce the weight of “useless” features. Also, optionally principle component analysis (PCA) may be utilized to group features based on variance and thereby reduce the size of the input to the classification model. This may be applied both during training and during determination of ground material with the trained model. Thereby, advantageously reducing the computational requirements of the model and improving the computational speed of the determination of ground material type of a ground material.

[472] Notice that it is within the scope of the invention to use other convolutional neural networks to determine ground material type. Also, the VGG16 and such other types of convolutional neural networks may be utilized together with other types of neural network models or other supervised machine learning models in, e.g., in a hybrid classification model used to determine ground material type of a ground material. Notice further that the whole VGG16 and other types of convolutional neural networks and sub-parts of these, e.g., excluding the final fully connected classification layers, may also be used in ensemble models, including the ensemble models described in relation to fig. 19 and fig. 20, to determine ground material type of a ground material.

[473] Fig. 16 illustrates a schematical representation of recurrent neural network comprising a recurrent neural network module comprising neurons with a feedback mechanism, according to an embodiment of the invention.

[474] The illustrated recurrent neural network module RNNM comprises an input layer (IL) with neurons INl-INn connected to a recurrent neural network module comprising hidden neurons HNl-HNn. The hidden neurons of the recurrent neural network are sometimes also called cells. The recurrent neural network module RNNM may comprise different cells, including, e.g., RNN cells, LSTM cells and GRU cells, according to embodiments of the invention. In this particular embodiment, the hidden neurons HNl-HNn) are recurrent neural network cells (RNN cells). Notice that a recurrent neural network of any type may be implemented with more than one layer of cells in the recurrent neural network module RNNM.

[475] The hidden neurons HNl-HNn of the illustrated recurrent neural network module RNNM comprises RNN cells. The RNN cells comprises a feedback loop FBL that feeds the output of these hidden layer neurons HNl-HNn back to the input of the hidden layer neurons. Hence, the hidden neurons HNl-HNn is provided with two types of inputs, namely one or more inputs from the input layer, and the input from the feedback loop FBL. The hidden layer neuron (RNN cell) then provide a hidden neuron output HNOl-HNOn based on both of these types of inputs. Notice that in case the RNN cell is positioned in a second or deeper layers (not illustrated) of the recurrent neural network module RNNM, the RNN cell would receive one or more inputs from the hidden layer neuron from the previous layer of the RNNM, and not typically also from input neurons.

[476] The feedback loop FBL of the recurrent neural network module RNNM provides the recurrent neural network the ability to retain past or historical information. This is advantageous because the ground material related data is time series data, wherein a current observation in the ground material related data has a dependency on one or more previous observations in the ground material related data. Advantageously, the recurrent neural network module or a full recurrent nerural network is capable of modeling these time dependencies in the ground material related data, and hence, implementing an recurrent neural network module RNNM in the models of various other embodiments may improve the performance of these networks, with regards to determine ground material type of a ground material. Models including a recurrent neural network module, such as recurrent neural network models may be computationally more expensive compared to other types of classification models, because of the memory-related properties of the recurrent neural network. Therefore, feed forward type networks that does not comprise the memory-properties of the recurrent neural network may be implemented when it is desired to reduce the computational requirements of the classification model.

[477] The recurrent neural network module RNNM may be implemented in other ground characterizing models of the invention, including, e.g., the classification model described in relation to fig. 11 and fig. 13, and the classification module with a multilayer perceptron module illustrated in fig. 13 and fig 14. However, the recurrent neural network module RNNM, e.g., implemented as hidden layers comprising RNN cells may advantageously be used in various embodiments of neural network type models according to the invention. The recurrent neural network module may also be combined with other types of models that are not necessarily neural network type classification models.

[478] A recurrent neural network module may have multiple hidden layers comprising RNN cells. Increasing the amount of layers and the amount of RNN cells in each layer improves the performance of the network, however, at the expense of increasing computational requirements, and the time required to train the network and to perform classification with the network. Hence, different architectures of recurrent neural networks may be implemented depending on the performance requirements and the computational resources available.

[479] Optionally, a feature extraction module, including the feature extraction module described in relation to fig. 13 may provide input to a recurrent neural network module, according to an embodiment of the invention. Advantageously, this exploits the advantageous feature extraction properties of the feature extraction module, while also utilizing the advantageous ability of the recurrent neural network module to learn dependencies across time series data. The feature extraction module may be a convolutional neural network, however, it may also be other types of feature extractions modules. Sometimes, the combination of multiple type of models into one model, such as described above, may be referred to as a hybrid model.

[480] While recurrent neural networks using RNN cells has many advantages as stated above, recurrent neural networks may suffer from vanishing gradient descent. In short, the gradients used to updates weights during training (e.g., backpropagation) may become very small. Multiplying weights with a gradient close to zero prevents the network from learning new weights. This essentially means that the network stops learning and thereby forgets what is seen in longer sequences of data. The problem of vanishing gradient descent increases the more layers the network has. While recurrent neural network may provide good performance of determining ground material type, there is a limit to the amount of layers that may be utilized because of the vanishing gradient descent. [481] To alleviate the problem of vanishing gradients, and thereby increase the memory of a recurrent network, embodiments of the invention may optionally utilize other types of recurrent neural networks or recurrent neural network modules comprising, e.g., long short-term memory (LSTM) cells, and gated recurrent unit (GRU) cells.

[482] Recurrent neural networks based on the long short-term memory (LSTM) cell is advantageous in that they can capture patterns in the data in in both the long-term and the short-term. These networks are typically referred to as LSTM networks. The architecture of LSTM networks can be varied as any other neural network, thus, it is the individual LSTM cells (the individual neurons) of the LSTM network that is different to the RNN cell. In addition to a the memory cell (sometimes referred to as a hidden state) of a RNN cell, the LSTM cell has a further memory cell, sometimes referred to as a cell state. The purpose of the cell state is too learn long-term patterns, whereas the hidden state usually retains more short-term information. The LSTM cell further comprises a forget gate, an output gate and an input gate. LSTM cells have a more complex structure compared to the RNN cell and the GRU cell, and therefore the LSTM cell is computationally more expensive, leading to longer training times and further requires more memory. We note, that the RNN cell, the LSTM cell and the GRU cell may differs from each other and from neurons not having a feedback loop in other ways, which is known to the skilled person.

[483] According to an embodiment of the invention, the recurrent neural network module may be based on hidden neurons being LSTM cells.

[484] The gated recurrent unit (GRU) is advantageous in that it may alleviate the vanishing gradient problem associated with the RNN cell. GRU networks utilize one or more hidden layers comprising GRU cells instead of the RNN cells illustrated in fig. 16. The GRU cells used fewer gates compared to the LSTM cell and do not have a separate internal memory (e.g., a cell state). Instead, the GRU cell solely relies on the hidden state as memory, leading to a simpler architecture of the GRU cell compared to the LSTM cell. Nevertheless, the GRU cell may still alleviate the vanishing gradient problem. Compared to LSTM cells, GRU cells may not be able to consider observations in data as far into the past as the LSTM cells. Nevertheless, the GRU cells are computationally more efficient and faster to train as they need less memory compared to the LSTM cell. Therefore, GRU cells may advantageously be utilized over LSTM cells, when computational resources are limited.

[485] According to an embodiment of the invention, the recurrent neural network module may be based on hidden neurons being GRU cells.

[486] Similar to the RNN cell, the LSTM cell and the GRU cell may be implemented as hidden layers comprising either LSTM cells or GRU cells. These hidden layers comprising these cells may be implemented in any of the neural network based models according to various embodiments of the invention, to enable these neural network models to determine ground material type of a ground material taking into account the temporal dependencies in the ground material related data given as input data to the neural network models. E.g., the neurons of the one or more hidden layers or even all of the hidden layers of the fully connected neural networks illustrated in various embodiments of the invention may be replaced by either RNN cells, LSTM cells and/or GRU cells. The amount of LSTM cells or GRU cells or RNN cells provided in each hidden layer, and the amount of hidden layers comprising these cells may be determined as a tradeoff between the performance of the model and the required computational resources needed to train and perform the determination of ground material type using the model.

[487] Optionally, a feature extraction module may provide input to a recurrent neural network module based on input measurements, and wherein the recurrent neural network module is connected to a classification module, wherein the classification module is configured to classify ground material type of a ground material based on output received from the recurrent neural network module. Optionally, the classification module may be a fully connected neural network, including, e.g., the multilayer perceptron illustrated in fig. 14. Optionally, the feature extraction module may be a convolutional neural network, including the convolutional neural network described in relation to fig. 13 and further including the VGG16 model without the multilayer perceptron model at the output, but using all of the convolutional blocks as feature extractors.

[488] Fig. illustrates a schematical representation of a trained classification model according to an embodiment of a ground characterizing model of the invention. The classification model may be implemented in any ground material determination system and on any ground modifier according to embodiments of the invention. When trained according to embodiments of the invention, the model may be considered a trained classification model, and the model may be utilized to determine ground material types according.

[489] The classification model CM comprises a recurrent neural network module RNNM comprising long short-term memory layers (LSTML) LSTMLl-LSTMLn, which each includes LSTM cells (not illustrated). The classification model CM further comprises a classification module receiving input from the recurrent neural network module RNNM. In the following example, the classification model may be considered a trained classification model. The trained classification model receives input measurements IM, which in this example comprises six ground material related data XI -X6 measurements. The recurrent neural network module receives the input measurements at the first LSTM layer LSTML1. The input measurements are processed by all the LSTM layers of the recurrent neural network module RNNM, and the hidden neurons, LSTM cells (not illustrated) of the last LSTM layer LSTMLn each provide and output, which is received by the classification module CLM of the classification model. The classification module CLM then determines a ground material type of a ground material associated with the input measurements, and provides a classification output representing the determined ground material type.

[490] The classification model could be any type of classification model, e.g. a fully connected neural network classifier, including the model illustrated in fig. 11, and including the multilayer perceptron model illustrated in fig. 14. Notice that other types of classifiers may also be utilized including classifiers that are not neural networks. [491] Optionally, an input layer comprising a number of neurons corresponding to the number of ground material related data measurements (XI -X6.)

[492] In a first example, a ground modifier modifies a terrain by moving ground material of the terrain. IN this example the ground material is clay. During moving of the ground material, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) positioned on a ground modification arrangement of the ground modifier acquires ground material related data in the form of inertial measurement (IMU) data. In this example, the IMU data comprises six data points X1-X6, which represents angular velocity and acceleration. The six ground material related data measurements is received by the recurrent neural network module RNNM, which processes the ground material related data measurements XI -X6 to produce outputs received by the classification module CLM. The classification module then determined the ground material type as clay, and then produces a classification output CO representing the determined ground material type. The classification model determines the type clay among a set of predefined ground material types that the classification model CM was trained to classify. These types are described elsewhere in this disclosure.

[493] The classification model CM may be trained using the training module and the training described in various embodiments of the invention. Furthermore, the model performance may be evaluated as described elsewhere in this disclosure (see e.g. the section classification model testing).

[494] Fig. 18 represents a schematical representation of a classification model utilizing different types of neural network models according to an embodiment of a ground characterizing model of the invention. The classification model may be referred to as a hybrid model, due to its use of multiple different types of neural networks. The illustrated classification model CM may be trained according to the training described in various embodiments of the invention, and using the training module of the invention, including, for example, the training module illustrated in fig. 9. When trained, the classification model may be considered an example of a ground characterizing model and more specifically, a ground characterizing model of the type trained classification model, according to the invention. The trained classification model may be used in ground material type determination systems and ground modifiers according to embodiments of the invention, including, for example, the system illustrated in fig. 7, fig. 8 and fig. 8b and the ground modifiers illustrated in fig. 2 and fig. 3. Hence, when trained, the classification model may be utilized as ground characterizing model in a method of determining a ground material type according to the invention, including the method described in relation to fig. 1. In short, the classification model CM may advantageously be used to classify ground material type of a ground material.

[495] The classification model comprises a feature extraction module FEM, a recurrent neural network module RNNM, and a classification module CLM. The feature extraction module receives input measurements and extract features from the input measurements. The extracted features is provided as input to the recurrent neural network module, which comprises cells such as RNN cells, LSTM cells or GRU cells, which are capable of modeling the temporal dependencies in the input measurements based on feedback loop, as described, e.g., in relation to fig. 16. The recurrent neural network module provides outputs, which are received by the classification moule CLM, which classifies the ground material type among a set of predefined ground material types, and provides a classification output CO representing the determined classification type.

[496] Optionally, the feature extraction module may be a convolutional neural network, according to various embodiments of the invention. This is advantageous in that this enables the classification module to exploit spatial dependencies in the input measurements, which may be based on, e.g., image data or IMU data of one or more cameras and IMU sensors, respectively. Advantageously, this may improve the performance of the model, e.g., by increasing the accuracy of the classification model.

[497] Optionally, the recurrent neural network module is a long short-term memory (LSTM) network. This is advantageous in that the LSTM network may exploit temporal dependencies in the input measurements. Advantageously, this may improve the performance of the model, e.g., by increasing the accuracy of the classification model. [498] Optionally, the classification module may be a neural network classifier. E.g.„ a fully connected neural network classifier, and/or a multilayer perceptron model such as the multilayer perceptron model illustrated in fig. 14.

[499] Being a hybrid model, the classification model may both temporal and spatial dependencies in the received input measurements, e.g. by employing a convolutional neural network as feature extraction model FEM providing input to the recurrent neural network module.

[500] Fig. 19 illustrates a schematical representation of an ensemble model EM according to an embodiment of the invention.

[501] The ensemble model 1 is an example of a ground characterizing model, which in this example is a classification model. The ensemble model comprises a plurality of models, and in this exemplified embodiment a first sub-model SMI and a second submodel SM2. Each of these models may be a classification models such as classification models described in relation to various other embodiments of the invention. The classification models are trained individually to determine ground material type based on the same predefined ground material types, but based on different ground material related data types represented in the illustration as input measurement typel and input measurement type 2. In this example, the first model has been trained based on IMU data, while the second model has been trained based on image data from a camera. The sub-models SMI and SM2 is a neural network type model in this example. When the two sub-models SMO1, SMO2 is implemented in the ensemble model, at least the last layer of each of the two neural network models is removed. Thereby, the each of the networks does not output a classification output comprising a ground material type. Instead, each of the two sub-models provide the output of neurons to the classification module CLM, which then based on the output from the two sub-models SMI, SM2 determines a ground material type and output the ground material type as a classification output. Advantageously, the ensemble model has the advantage that each individual sub-model SMI, SM2 may be trained on specific types of ground material related data types, and thereby the model may be optimized according to the particular type of ground material related data. Furthermore, different types of models may be implemented for the individual sub-models used in the ensemble mode. Thereby, e.g., a sub-model that performs good with imaging data may be implemented to be used for the imaging data, e.g. a convolutional neural network model, while another type of sub-model that may perform better with IMU data may be implemented to be used for the IMU data.

[502] Fig. 20 illustrates a schematical representation of an ensemble model EM comprising two sub-models SMI, SM2. The ensemble model EM is similar to the ensemble model illustrated in fig. 19, except that each of the sub-models SMI, SM2 comprises both a feature extraction model FME1, FME2 and a recurrent neural network module RNNM1, RNNM2. The feature extraction module FEM1 of submodel l is a convolutional neural network, while the feature extraction module of fig. 2 is a different convolutional neural network. The recurrent neural network module RNNM1 of the first sub-model SMI is a LSTM network model, while the recurrent neural network module RNNM2 of the second sub-model SM2 is a different LSTM network model.

[503] Optionally, the two LSTM network models of the two recurrent neural network modules RNNM1, RNNM2 comprises the same architecture.

[504] Optionally, the convolutional neural network models of the two feature extraction models FEM1, FEM2 comprises the same architecture.

[505] Optionally, the two recurrent neural network models are different.

[506] Optionally, the two feature extraction models are different.

[507] Optionally, the ensemble model comprises more than two sub-models.

[508] Optionally, the ensemble model comprises a sub-model for every different input measurement type that the model receives as input measurements. The different input measurement types corresponds to different types of ground material related data. [509] Optionally, ensemble model comprises different sub-models, and each different sub-model is trained based om the same training input measurements.

[510] Classification model testing

[511] The performance of the ground characterizing model of the various embodiments of the invention may be evaluated based on different model performance metrics and based on a test dataset. The test dataset may be generated based on labelled training input measurements, which are split into a train dataset and into a test dataset, e.g., using a random split, which means that the labeled training input measurements are selected randomly to either the test dataset or to the training dataset. The test dataset may comprise 50% of all the labelled training input measurements, however preferably, less of the labelled training input measurements are used for training. Preferably approximately 20% to 30% of the labeled training input measurements are used for the test dataset. However, it may also be less than 20% or more than 50% of the labeled training input measurements that is used for the test dataset. The test dataset is then used to evaluate the performance of the model. Model performance metrics may, e.g., advantageously be based on or more of the following metrics: confusion matrix, type I error, type II error, accuracy, recall, precision and Fl -score, specificity, ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics curve) curve, AUC (area under the curve) score, PR score, etc. The model performance may advantageously in some embodiments of the invention be automatically evaluated by a test module, which may calculate one or more of the model performance metrics.

[512] Hyper parameters of the classification models may be tuned (sometimes also referred to as adjusted) in different ways. Optionally, the hyper parameters of the classification models may, e.g., be adjusted based on Grid and/or random search for optimal parameters, and/or based on cross validation. Other types of methods for adjusting hyper parameters may also be applied, according to different embodiments of the invention.

[513] Optionally neural network based classification models may advantageously utilize one or more normalization layers, such as e.g., dropout layer. Advantageously this has the effect of regularizing the classification model, and thereby, it may improve the performance of the classification model, e.g. by avoiding overfitting to e.g. the training data.

[514]

[515] In an optional embodiment of the invention different machine motions may be determined based sensor data from one or more sensors, including, e.g., inertial measurement units. These machine motions may sometimes be referred to as ground modification motions and may include motions based on movement of parts of the ground modifier including the earthwork tool (e.g. bucket), and parts of the ground modification arrangement and the wheel base, and the body of a ground modifier. These motions may be registered and logged, e.g., together with the time that the motions have been performed. Ground modification motions may comprise less or more detailed motions. Non-limiting examples of ground modification motions may e.g., comprise: bucket open and close, moving stick out and in, boom up, boom down, body driving, body rotating, bucket stick with body rotation, bucket stick without body rotation, machine moving forward, machine moving backwards, digging, filling, offloading, pulling, lifting, lifting while body rotates, lifting without body rotation, lifting while driving, lifting without driving etc.

[516] Advantageously, these ground modification motions and/or machine motions may be determined, e.g., classified using different types of machine learning models and models that are not based on machine learning.

[517] Advantageously, these ground modification motions and/or machine motions may be analyzed to provide information regarding work efficiency, etc.

[518] It should be understood that the described embodiments of the invention may be combined in a multitude of ways withing the scope of the claim. List of reference signs:

AF Activation function.

AR Arm.

Analyzer module.

BM Boom

BOA Boom angle

BO AC Boom acceleration.

BP Body portion.

BRO Body rotation.

BUA Bucket angle.

BUAC Bucket acceleration.

CA Camera.

CB1-CB5 Convolution blocks

CL11-CL53 Convolutional layer.

CLM Classification module.

CM Classification model.

CMO Classification model optimizer.

CMP Classification model parameters.

CNNCM Convolutional neural network classification model.

CO Classification output.

COD Classification output determiner.

CS Cloud server.

DIG Digging.

DL1-DL2 Dense layer.

DP Display.

ECM Error calculation module.

EM Ensemble model.

ET Earthwork tool.

EX Excavator.

FL Flattening layer.

FEM Feature extraction module. FEO Feature extraction output.

GCM Ground characterizing model.

GM1-GM6 Ground modifier.

GMA Ground modification arrangement.

GMC Ground modifier characteristics.

GMRD Ground material related data.

GMTl-GMTn Ground material type.

GRA Ground material.

GTDS Ground material type determination system.

HL Hidden layer.

HNl l-HNnn Hidden neuron.

HNOl-HNn Hidden neuron output.

IL Input layer.

IMl-IMn Input measurement.

IMR Input measurement receiver.

IMT1-IMT2 Input measurement type.

INl-INn Neurons.

LN Linkage.

MH Machine height.

MLPM Multilayer perceptron model.

MT Model trainer.

Ml -M3 Method steps.

NNM Neural network model.

NO Neuronal output. OFL. Offloading.

OL Output layer.

ONl-OnN Output neuron.

PGMT Predefined ground material types

PGMTC Predetermined ground material type characteristics

PL1-PL5 Pooling layer.

RNNM Recurrent neural network module.

RV Receiver. SM1-SM2 Sub-model.

SEl-n Sensor.

TCO Training classification output.

TDS Training dataset. TDSG Training dataset generator.

TE Training error.

TIL Training input labels.

TIM Training input measurement.

TIMR Training input measurement receiver. TIML Training input measurement labeler.

TM Training module.

TP Tool point.

TPH Tool point height.

TPPI Tool point position information. TSM Transmitter.

UCMP Updated classification model parameters.

WB Wheel base.

Wl, W2 Weight.