Capturing Geometry for Labeling and Mapping Built Infrastructure: An Overview of Technologies

Abstract

Capturing geometry and measuring dimensions of various objects is one of the major aspects of labeling and mapping existing built infrastructure. Throughout the Architecture, Engineering, Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry, length measurements vary from large-scale applications such as measuring distances between cities to small-scale applications such as measuring the depth of a crack or width of a welded joint. Within the last two decades, advances in applying new technologies have resulted in emerging new measuring devices such as ultrasound- and laser-based measurers. Considering the diversity of these devices in terms of associated costs, ease of use and levels of accuracy, the selection of an optimal measuring technology is a challenging task for construction engineers and facility managers. To tackle this issue, the authors present a thorough literature review on various measuring technologies adopted by experts in the area of AEC/FM. In the next step, and in order to evaluate the performance of these technologies, a number of real built infrastructure settings were chosen as case studies and multiple length measurements were conducted by implementing six common categories of technologies: tapes, total stations, laser measurers, ultrasound devices, laser scanners and image-based technologies. Finally, performance of various devices was compared and evaluated considering several comparison factors including the required time for operating and training, ease of use, level of accuracy and associated costs.