USGS recognizes Sanborn expertise in AI/ML for natural resource mapping

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) are exploring the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) tools for critical minerals assessments.

In order to solicit innovative solutions, DARPA collaborated with USGS, MITRE, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on an industry competition: The USGS Map Georeferencing Challenge and the Feature Extraction Challenge of the Artificial Intelligence for Critical Mineral Assessment.

At the virtual awards ceremony for the competition held on December 7th, Sanborn earned fourth place and an Honorable Mention. Sanborn successfully demonstrated ways to automate the georeferencing of scanned and raster maps, as well as feature extraction. Starting with a set of 1,000 maps of unknown location and coordinate system, for example, the Sanborn Team, developed routines to scan, recognize text and features, and subsequently fit coordinate points referenced to known locations using a variety of tools in an automated process.

www.Sanborn.com