Slope Stability AI

Slope Stability AI


Strayos’ Slope Stability AI is a site analytics module that automatically calculates and visualizes a Safety Factor (SF) rating for your site’s slopes directly on a 3D terrain model.

By combining your 3D model, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and user-defined rock/soil material properties, the AI utilizes a 3D limit equilibrium method (the Modified Bishop’s method) to analyze circular slip surfaces. In practice, it converts drone imagery into a crucial geotechnical dataset that highlights potential slope failure zones.

Outputs at a glance

  • 3D Overlay: A colored heat map draped over your 3D model representing the Safety Factor (SF) distribution.

  • Safety Factor Readout: Real-time SF values displayed at your cursor's location as you hover over the heat map.

  • Exports: Geolocated raster TIF files, colored TIF files, and a formatted Slope Stability Report as a PDF.

1. Before You Start: Input Data

To run a successful slope stability analysis, you need accurate inputs. The module relies on:

  • A Geolocated DEM & 3D Model: Generated from your drone imagery reconstruction.

  • Soil/Material Properties: You must define the physical behavior of your site's soil. Because the solver uses Mohr-Coulomb theory, you will need accurate values for:

    • Density (e.g., kg/m³)

    • Cohesive strength (e.g., Pa)

    • Internal friction angle (in degrees)

WarningImportant Technical Note: Strayos’ Slope Stability AI utilizes the Modified Bishop's method, which calculates stability based on a circular slip failure surface. Because of this, the module is designed for materials that behave isotropically as a soil mass—such as soils, heavily fractured or weathered rock, and spoil piles. This tool should not be used to analyze structurally controlled failures in intact rock (e.g., planar, wedge, or toppling failures), as those are governed by specific geological discontinuities rather than circular shear failure.

2. Running an Analysis: Step by Step

Step 1: Open your terrain. Navigate to the site, then select the Slope Stability AI module on the left-hand menu to load the 3D view of your model.

Step 2: Manage Materials. Click Manage Materials in the side panel. Click Add Material and input your material's Name, Description, Density, Cohesive Strength, and Friction Angle.

Note: You can save multiple materials (e.g., Copper Ore, Iron, Sand) for quick selection in future analyses.


Step 3: Define the Area. Click Add Task. Outline the Region of Interest (ROI) with a polygon to define the specific area you want to analyze. Keeping the selection focused processes faster.


Step 4: Process. Run the task. Once the area has been processed, the colored heat map will appear over your 3D model.

3. Reading the Results

The AI applies a JET-color palette to the 3D model's textures to represent the localized Safety Factor. As you move your cursor across the terrain, the exact SF value is displayed at the bottom of the screen.



Safety Factor Color Scale:

  • Dark Red: Indicates highly unstable areas (SF < 1.0).

  • Dark Blue: Indicates highly stable areas (SF > 1.5).

Understanding the Safety Factor (SF) Rating:



4. How Slope Stability AI Works (Under the Hood)

4.1 Key Concepts

A short glossary to help you navigate the geotechnical terminology used in this module:
  1. Safety Factor (SF): The ratio between Resistance Forces and Driving Forces for the ground's volume included between the top and sliding surfaces.
  2. Modified Bishop's Method: An effective limit equilibrium method used to analyze circular slip surfaces. It assumes a limit state on a localized slip surface and possesses high precision for practical engineering.
  3. Mohr-Coulomb Criterion: A mathematical model describing the response of brittle materials (like rock and soil) to shear stress as well as normal stress.
  4. Region of Interest (ROI): A targeted, user-defined polygon on the terrain. Processing a specific ROI instead of the entire site yields much faster results

4.2 Technical pipeline

The module calculates stability using an iterative approach based on Bishop’s limit equilibrium method: 

  1. Grid Resampling: The system resamples the XY-plane of your input geometry into a low-dimensional grid using the DEM.

  2. Surface Generation: It generates an array of spherical sliding surfaces around the terrain's geometry based on your control parameters (radiuses and center distances). Spheres that do not intersect with the terrain are filtered out.

  3. Iterative Calculation: For each remaining spherical surface, the AI splits the grid's cells by surface, summarizes the slope failure volume, and prepares the necessary cell data (side areas, volume, angles).

  4. Solver Execution: The solver runs the Modified Bishop's method (ignoring vertical shear strength between slices and applying the Mohr-Coulomb criterion) to obtain the SF.

  5. Accumulation: During these iterations, the absolute minimum Safety Factor values are accumulated into the final result field, ensuring the most critical potential failure zones are highlighted.

5. Analysing & Reporting

Once you are satisfied with the analysis, you can export the data for sharing or downstream software:

  • Download TIF (Geolocated Raster): Exports the raw, interpolated Safety Factor field data.

  • Download Colored TIF: Exports the visually colored heat map overlay.

  • Slope Stability Report: Click the yellow Slope Stability Report button at the bottom of the module to generate a branded PDF summary. This report captures a 3D summary view of the heatmap, material parameters used, and overall stability statistics (Min, Max, Mean, Standard Deviation).


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