Novel approach to predicting blast-induced ground vibration using Gaussian process regression

An attempt has been made to propose a novel prediction model based on the Gaussian process regression (GPR) approach. The proposed GPR was used to predict blast-induced ground vibration using 210 blasting events from an open pit mine in Ghana. Out of the 210 blasting data, 130 were used in the model development (training), whereas the remaining 80 were used to independently assess the performance of the GPR model. The formulated GPR model was compared with the other standard predictive techniques such as the generalised regression neural network, radial basis function neural network, back-propagation neural network, and four conventional ground vibration predictors (United State Bureau of Mines model, Langefors and Kihlstrom model, Ambraseys-Hendron model, and Indian Standard model). Comparatively, the statistical results revealed that the proposed GPR approach can predict ground vibration more accurately than the standard techniques presented in this study. The GPR had the highest correlation coefficient (R), variance accounted for, and the lowest values of the statistical error indicators (mean absolute error and root-mean-square error) applied. The superiority of GPR to the other methods is explained by the ability of the GPR to quantitatively model the noise patterns in the blasting data events adequately. The study will serve as a foundation for future research works in the mining industry where artificial intelligence technology is yet to be fully explored.