MOBILE LASER SCANNING: HOW IT WORKS AND WHERE YOU CAN APPLY IT
3D laser scanning has become one of the most innovative technologies in engineering and construction. What used to be a difficult process of measuring the details of a building and rendering everything manually can now be done more accurately with the help of a measured building survey company.
They can render measurements directly through a 3D point cloud and produce 3D BIM models that are useful for a lot of applications.
But just when things couldn’t get better, here comes mobile laser scanning, which is the newest addition to the 3D laser scanning market that’s predicted to be worth £2.8 billion by 2025.
The transition from traditional static 3D laser scanners to mobile 3D laser scanners help speed up massive data gathering while causing the least disruption to a construction site and reducing the risks to surveyors.
THE BENEFITS OF USING 3D MOBILE SCANNERS
3D laser scanning services by 7 Measured Survey is already reliable enough in speeding up surveys and rendering data into highly accurate as built 2D plans from large spaces and buildings. But with 3D mobile scanners, you also get to enjoy these additional benefits specifying in more focal point projects:
- It’s easier to measure hard-to-reach areas and tight spaces that would be otherwise hard to measure using a static scan because of its size. This allows you to do an accurate 3D laser scan without having to constantly reposition the scanner, which helps save time and effort in completing surveys.
- With the help of mounted cameras, you can now capture color images that can be used to render colored as built 2D AutoCAD drawings that offer a more accurate representation of a structure. This is especially useful for complex projects that require extra precision.
- The convenience of using a mobile 3D scanner helps surveyors avoid distractions in construction sites while cutting down surveying time since every single data can be captured at once, so there’s no need to go back to a site just to gather previously inaccessible data.
- Mobile 3D scanners can either be handheld or camera mounted, which makes them easier to learn and manage during surveys. You also won’t need a lot of extra staff just to carry equipment to a construction site.
THE BENEFIST OF USING 3D MOBILE SCANNERS
The flexibility and portability of using mobile 3D laser scanning service makes it very useful for applications that would be otherwise challenging to accomplish using a static 3D laser scanner.
- Projects covering miles of land. Mobile laser scanners are ideal for surveying projects covering a huge area of land since it cuts down the time need to gather point clouds from miles of land as compared to a static scanner.
Vehicle-mounted mobile scanning systems are more efficient at covering more space than their tripod-mounted counterparts.
- Unsafe building sites. It’s no secret that surveying some construction sites can be extremely difficult and even dangerous, especially those sites located in busy urban areas or those covered by a lot of vegetation.
But with the help of mobile laser scans, these unsafe building sites and inaccessible areas can now be surveyed in detail without having to put survey teams at risk.
- Route surveys. Mobile mapping is one of the biggest benefits of mobile laser scanners because they can be done using a car, boat, train or even ship.
It is especially useful for doing route surveys where data including images, point cloud data and even position and orientation information can be easily carried out.
Mobile laser scanners are definitely making a headway in construction and engineering these days because of their ability to produce extremely precise point clouds that can be rendered through a 3D point cloud survey.
It can also be used for creating models, analysing project data, monitoring natural and anthropogenic processes and localizing different areas in a construction site.
With more innovations still under way in the 3D laser scanning industry, we can only look forward to better methods in the next few years.