Array Optimisation for Multi-channel Electrical Resistivity Tomography Instruments

Research into optimising resistivity data collection has not previously considered the use of multi-channel instruments. We present an extension to our previous algorithm that enables it to make full use of multiple measurement channels. We analyse its performance in terms of the model resolution matrix and inversions of synthetic data. The multi-channel algorithm matches the optimisation performance of the original version very closely. The advantage of a multi-channel array is that it permits collection of a near-optimal dataset much more quickly than an equivalent single channel array.