Application of the Airborne LIDAR Technology on the Quarry Using AutoCAD Civil 3D Software

Abstract

Times are quickly changing - AutoCAD Civil 3D provides rich set of geodetic tools and add-ons to dramatically speed-up surveyed data post-processing, visualization and analysis. Drone-based laser scanning speeds up the data collection stage of the workflow and, when compared to aerial photogrammetry, offers much faster turnaround of the physical quantities. AutoCAD Civil 3D allows to compute volumes and generate profile views within a matter of hours, so that stockpile quantities recorded are accurate on a set day, rather than reflecting a historic situation. Drone-based 3D laser scanning not only reduces the time spent on stockpile surveying while enhancing the safety of workers, but also offers a level of surface detail that is incomparable to that collected from total stations: 100,000+ 3D points collected in just a few minutes. AutoCAD Civil 3D enables creating TIN surface from points within RCS format point cloud scanned object created with Autodesk ReCap. Drone-mounted 3D laser scanner includes a GPS receiver and inertial measurement unit (IMU), so data can be geo-referenced to an exact location. Each operation referenced to the same co-ordinate system. Key benefit of this operation is better accuracy and traceability of these methods. Drone-mounted LiDAR represents a safe way to survey dangerous and hostile environments. Once a point cloud-based surface created within AutoCAD Civil 3D, it can be used built-in tools to perform quick volumetric calculations, and easily create alignment profile cross-sections using only polylines drawn atop of a generated TIN.