Abstract
The urgent need to improve performance in the construction industry has led to the adoption of many innovative technologies. 3D laser scanners are amongst the leading technologies being used to capture and process assets or construction project data for use in various applications. Due to its nascent nature, many questions are still unanswered about 3D laser scanning, which in turn contribute to the slow adaptation of the technology. Some of these include the role of 3D laser scanners in capturing and processing raw construction project data. How accurate are the 3D laser scanner or point cloud data? How does laser scanning fit with other wider emerging technologies such as building information modeling (BIM)? This study adopts a proof-of-concept approach, which in addition to answering the aforementioned questions, illustrates the application of the technology in practice. The study finds that the quality of the data, commonly referred to as point cloud data, is still a major issue as it depends on the distance between the target object and 3D laser scanner’s station. Additionally, the quality of the data is still very dependent on data file sizes and the computational power of the processing machine. Lastly, the connection between laser scanning and BIM approaches is still weak as what can be done with a point cloud data model in a BIM environment is still very limited. The aforementioned findings reinforce existing views on the use of 3D laser scanners in capturing and processing construction project data.
Highlights
The construction industry is in a state of constant change, as it evolves from weak productivity driven by poor management and outdated methods, to adopting new building technologies [1,2]
Despite the multiple applications of laser scanning alongside building information modeling (BIM) in the existing research, most studies focus on the process after the point cloud data exportation, with little attention being given to the acquisition of the data themselves
This study has examined the applications of 3D laser scanners in construction
Summary
The construction industry is in a state of constant change, as it evolves from weak productivity driven by poor management and outdated methods, to adopting new building technologies [1,2]. In obtaining an accurate model that reflects the “as-is condition” or “as-built” condition in a project being delivered using BIM, compared with traditional methods is hardly possible This was noted by Rahimian et al [6], highlighting the need for an improved collaborative decision-making system in AEC that can provide the “right information to right people at right time” During the last decade, several new survey systems have been developed in the AEC industry to reflect different lifecycles of a project [16] While each of these techniques has its own advantages and limitations, it is important to understand the process from survey to 3D modeling, focusing on single precision data, overall accuracy, costs, acquisition, and processing times [13,17,18,19,20] and, more importantly, application-oriented data acquisition as the need for capturing 3D point cloud data for existing buildings keeps increasing [11].
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