Abstract
As a revolutionary technology, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is attracting increasing interest in the fields of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), with outstanding advantages, such as highly automated, non-contact operation and efficient large-scale sampling capability. TLS has extended a new approach to capturing extremely comprehensive data of the construction environment, providing detailed information for further analysis. This paper presents a systematic review based on scientometric and qualitative analysis to summarize the progress and the current status of the topic and to point out promising research efforts. To begin with, a brief understanding of TLS is provided. Following the selection of relevant papers through a literature search, a scientometric analysis of papers is carried out. Then, major applications are categorized and presented, including (1) 3D model reconstruction, (2) object recognition, (3) deformation measurement, (4) quality assessment, and (5) progress tracking. For widespread adoption and effective use of TLS, essential problems impacting working effects in application are summarized as follows: workflow, data quality, scan planning, and data processing. Finally, future research directions are suggested, including: (1) cost control of hardware and software, (2) improvement of data processing capability, (3) automatic scan planning, (4) integration of digital technologies, (5) adoption of artificial intelligence.
Highlights
In the context of “Industry 4.0”, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC)industry is undergoing a significant shift from conventional labor-intensive practices towards digitalization and intelligence [1]
The main objectives of this review are to: (1) introduce terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and summarize the potential benefits of TLS in the AEC industry (Section 2); (2) collect relevant papers according to a preset literature search strategy and perform scientometric analysis to reflect the trends, top journals, co-occurrence keywords, and co-citation documents of publications (Section 3); (3) generalize the current TLS-related applications in the AEC industry (Section 4); (4) analyze critical issues related to application (Section 5); (5) point out future research directions (Section 6)
Future research should be conducted to optimize the main elements in a functional model of scan planning, including: (a) exploring various kinds of input model matching the real environment well; (b) investigating the required data quality for specific applications and establishing the relationship between the required data quality and the scan parameters; (c) developing more optimal solutions for solving constrained nonlinear optimization problems; (d) using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and optimization algorithms to increase the level of automation and real-time adjustment to reduce manual intervention in data acquisition
Summary
In the context of “Industry 4.0”, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). In the last ten years, plenty of studies have been conducted to verify the potential application of TLS, which has been proven to be a promising technique. In this case, some review articles about this topic have been published. The main objectives of this review are to: (1) introduce TLS and summarize the potential benefits of TLS in the AEC industry (Section 2); (2) collect relevant papers according to a preset literature search strategy and perform scientometric analysis to reflect the trends, top journals, co-occurrence keywords, and co-citation documents of publications (Section 3);. (4) analyze critical issues related to application (Section 5); (5) point out future research directions (Section 6)
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