Structural Deflection Measurement with a Range Camera

Abstract

AbstractRange cameras offer great potential for the measurement of structural deformations because of their ability to directly measure video sequences of three-dimensional coordinates of entire surfaces, their compactness, and their relatively low cost compared with other active imaging technologies such as terrestrial laser scanners. Identified limitations of range cameras for high-precision metrology applications such as deformation measurement include the high (centimeter level) noise level and scene-dependent errors. This paper proposes models and methodologies to overcome these limitations and reports on the use of a SwissRanger SR4000 range camera for the measurement of deflections in concrete beams subjected to flexural load-testing. Results from three separate tests show that submillimeter precision and accuracy—assessed by comparison with estimates derived from terrestrial laser scanner data—can be achieved. The high-accuracy range camera results were realized by eliminating the systematic, scen...