CREG Participates in TBM Intelligent Tunneling ‘Lotus Pond Initiative’

On May 4, 2019, more than 80 Chinese industry experts, teachers and students from domestic TBM tunnel engineering planning, design, construction, equipment manufacturing and research positions gathered in Beijing Yun-zen Jinling Lotus hotel to attend “TBM Tunneling Parameter Data Sharing and Machine Learning: Parallel Analysis Seminar.” The seminar was co-sponsored by National 973 Program “TBM Effective Tunneling Whole Process Information Intelligent Control and Supporting Software Basic Research” project team and Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics & Engineering, and organized by Intelligent R&D Institute of China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Co. Ltd. (CREG).

Aiming at the urgent demand for huge amount of data sharing and the fact that the information can exist in isolated islands within the industry, academicians of Chen Zuyu, Qian Qihu, Cheng Gengdong, He Manchao, Yang Huayong and TBM industry leading figures represented by Li Jianbin jointly launched the “Lotus Pond Initiative,” calling for addressing TBM industry data standardization and sharing challenges, promoting the application of big data and artificial intelligence in the industry, to reinforce the overall strength of China’s TBM industry.

The “Lotus Pond Initiative” focuses on: continuing to promote TBM data standardization and data sharing; promoting combination of disciplines and the industry; integrating closely with major engineering projects; giving full play to academic societies.

“TBM R&D has experienced trials and errors and has become the hardware support of large mountain tunnel construction. Machine learning is an interdisciplinary subject in many fields. It is the core of artificial intelligence and the fundamental way to make computers intelligent,” said He Manchao, president of Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics & Engineering, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Chen Zuyu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that, “We call on information experts, electromechanical experts and geotechnical engineering experts to cooperate and work with each other, so as to further improve China’s TBM manufacturing and tunneling technology capability and achieve more outcomes in safe, efficient and intelligent tunneling. We call on the national TBM key projects that have been started and will be carried out in the future, to provide more space for the research and development of big data and artificial intelligence. We also call on the scientific and technical personnel to devote themselves to the TBM projects with a high sense of responsibility and develop an intelligent product for TBM construction.”

Chief scientist of National 973 Program, general manager of China Railway Hi-Tech Industry Corp. Ltd., Li Jianbin stated, “With the increasingly high level of TBM information and data mining utilization in the future, intelligent TBM and intelligent tunnel construction will definitely be realized, and China’s engineering equipment and engineering construction technical strength will also reach the world’s leading level.”

As a leading enterprise in TBM industry, CREG has participated in launching the “Lotus Pond Initiative,” and is dedicated to breaking through the bottleneck of big data and artificial intelligence in TBM and contributing to the development of China’s TBM industry.

RELATED: RETC 2019 Heads to Chicago