Mass Digitisation: How to Process Hundreds of Pages in Minutes

In complex geotechnical projects, historical data stored in scanned reports, borehole logs, in-situ tests, and laboratory results is a critical source of knowledge. However, the usability of this data has long been constrained by its unstructured formats—often low-quality scans or handwritten notes. Traditionally, digitising these materials was a slow, manual task prone to errors. Mass digitisation now offers a breakthrough solution that automates this process, unlocking the full value of legacy data.

The Challenge of Legacy Documents

Most organisations working in civil engineering, mining or tunnelling manage hundreds—sometimes thousands—of pages of geotechnical documentation. Manual digitisation is not only costly and time-intensive but also introduces risk through transcription errors and data misinterpretation. As a result, valuable information is frequently overlooked, leading to duplicated investigations, planning inefficiencies, and increased uncertainty during design and construction.

OCR and AI: Redefining the Digitisation Workflow

DAARWIN introduces a high-performance, automated digitisation workflow that combines advanced technologies:

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with high accuracy, even on degraded or low-resolution documents.

• Image classification and object detection to automatically recognise diagrams, tables, and technical layouts.

• AI-based data extraction to interpret complex information such as lithological descriptions, test results, and depth logs.

• Automatic data structuring to convert raw content into clean, structured datasets ready for analysis and modelling.
  

Thanks to these features, hundreds of pages can now be processed in under an hour, with consistency and traceability across all outputs.

Strategic Benefits for Geotechnical Projects

Mass digitisation is not just an administrative convenience—it is a strategic enabler with tangible benefits:

• Immediate access to critical historical insights for design, modelling, and planning.

• Reduced uncertainty, by integrating past data into present-day workflows.

• Enhanced traceability and regulatory compliance, through centralised, searchable archives.

• Reduced manual workload, freeing up engineers to focus on higher-value tasks.

  
  

Application within DAARWIN: From Analog to Actionable

Once digitised, all extracted data is fed directly into DAARWIN’s Ground Investigation Data Management module. This allows seamless integration for:

• Digital ground model construction,

• Sensitivity analysis and real-time backanalysis,

• Comparison with live instrumentation data,

• Identification of anomalies or inconsistencies from historical datasets.
  

All information remains accessible in a unified platform, creating a living, digital memory of the project—scalable, reusable, and reliable.

Mass digitisation is no longer a costly bottleneck. Tools like DAARWIN allow engineers to convert legacy documentation into valuable, structured insights in a matter of minutes. This transformation empowers technical teams to incorporate past knowledge into present decisions, reduce design risk, and strengthen the technical foundation of every project.