Shaping the future of tunneling with data and emerging technologies

Abstract The increase in global population and urbanization is presenting significant challenges to society: space is becoming increasingly scarce, demand is exceeding capacity for deteriorating infrastructure, transportation is fraught with congestion, and environmental impacts are accelerating. Underground space, and particularly tunnels, has a key role to play in tackling these challenges. However, the cost, risk, uncertainty, and complexity of the tunneling process have impeded its growth. In this paper, we envision several technological advancements that can potentially innovate and transform the mechanized tunneling industry, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous, and bio-inspired systems. The proliferation of AI may assist human engineers and operators in making informed decisions systematically and quantitatively based on massive real-time data during tunneling. Autonomous tunneling systems may enable precise and predictable tunneling operations with minimal human intervention and facilitate the construction of massive and large-scale underground infrastructure projects that were previously challenging or unfeasible using conventional methods. Bio-inspired systems may provide valuable references and strategies for more efficient tunneling design and construction concepts. While these technological advancements can offer great promise, they also face considerable challenges, such as improving accessibility to and shareability of tunneling data, developing robust, reliable, and explainable machine learning systems, as well as scaling the mechanics and ensuring the applicability of bio-inspired systems from the prototype level to real-world applications. Addressing these challenges is imperative to ensure the successful implementation of these innovations for future tunneling.