Laser Scanning

Working on that side

I read a series of papers from FARO that help describe some practical applications.

From my limited knowledge (I have never used one but i really want to):

-Volumes: I recall one surveyor that posted here (or another site) said he scanned an entire site during his initial layout work and then got a call back to get volumes of some coal piles or something. He already had the data and delivered the numbers in a few hours. The client was so impressed that the surveyor got a recurring contract (monthly, weekly?) to scan the piles and calc volumes. Any major construction site, cleanup site, or chemical industrial site, has piles of stuff laying around. Those numbers are valuable to the client.

-Complex Piping as-builts: Industrial, oil and gas, etc... Some of these places look like a pile of spaghetti when you first approach them, and the traditional way of as-builting piping may be close to impossible. When scanned you can model them fairly easily.

-Historic: Scanning old bridges, church interiors, or monuments before any major work is done can be a major income source.

-Crime Scenes: I think this will be the way of the future. Currently most law enforcement departments own their own total station and survey many crime scenes. If you were to show your local department the value of scanning the scene instead, they may hire you. Imagine having an accurate model of every place a shooter walked. You could show who had line of sight to identify him, which casings could have ejected from his gun based on distance, etc...

-General Topo: To collect some more shots for the client on the same site, all that is needed is to query the data. No mobilization of a field crew or adding more control to just to see something they missed. If the entire site is scanned, it is easy enough to add in "extras" the client forgot to ask for. Like tree drip-lines, trunk diameters, or exposed root systems. Of course the client get charged extras for this.

The sky is the limit. Imagine of never adding a break-line again, never messing with proper coding again during topo, and having all the data for every site. As a office tech I wish I could convince my boss to buy one. I think that these devices will be the way of the future. The cost is coming down quickly, and there are some great options already.

I promise I am not a salesman. I really think these things will be as game changing as RTK GPS was. Google some of the models that the car mounted ones are making. Incredible.

I use both Carlson Point Cloud and TopoDOT (still learning that one). The CAD Tech is the field guy and you have the pleasure of running breaklines and other lines from the comfort of your seat in the office.

Certainty3D (TopoDot) has a white paper that describes a ratio of 3:2 office to field crew in a traditional environment. This is compared to 6:1 for office to mobile scanner. Put the terrestrial scanner somewhere between and you have more CAD Techs who need training in this brave new world.

Try before you buy - the sales guy has to get you a demo of the software and some sample data. Dedicate a day to do something.

It is awesome in both meanings of the word.

I believe you are referencing a MS50, excellent piece of equipment for breaking into scanning. It has limited speed and mobility, but a good way to get started.

I am of a firm believer that scanning will become the choice for mapping based applications in the coming two years. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT YOU GET MUCH MORE DATA in roughly the same amount of time at pretty much the same accuracy and precision as traditional survey equipment. This is due to the point cloud software coming of age. You can extract features in about the same amount of time as connecting points, and the automatic feature extraction will be near the same level as auto-line-work in a year or so.

There is no time like the present to take a step in the direction that the industry is headed.

PS - Scanning doesn't require going back to the field to get something that was missed in a survey.

We've been using them for a couple of years now. Safety is also comes into play. We've scanned some road intersections and rock cliffs that were just not safe put a crew. Biggest thing you have to deal with believe it or not, is getting rid of data. It will get everything it sees.

Rich

> The company that I work for is considering purchasing a laser scanner. Actually it is a laser scanner and robotic instrument combined. We had someone come out and do a demo last week and I have to admit that it is a slick instrument. The only problem is we are trying to figure out what the practical use of the scanner would be. There is also the return on investment to consider and how long it would take to make it a worthwhile investment. Being able to pull double duty as a robotic instrument is a plus, so it would not be an expensive paper weight when we are not doing any scanning projects. What practical applications could this be used on and who would you market it to?

If you REALLY want to be inspired; you should talk your boss into sending you to SPAR International Conference 3/30-4/2 Houston TX or better yet; take him with you.

Seriously, Go to Spar if you have any questions about Laser Scanning. This is a very good conference with VERY good information.

Word of caution, you will want to buy a scanner and question why you haven't purchased one in the past. Truly eye opening

awesome pic. made me swat my screen.

Crime / Accident Site Data - Laser Scanning

> -Crime Scenes: I think this will be the way of the future...

That is a fact.

I have several electric utility company clients. Sad as it may seem, they are always embroiled in litigation concerning an electrical accident. The nature of these usually relieves at least one person of their pulse.

For a number of years we would periodically get called to "survey" an accident site. This always involved clearances and heights and such. Fairly simple work, but always a pain because it invariably involved showing up to either depositions or hearings just to say "I was there and I measured this..". Every once in a while we would generate a 24x36 foam board exhibit. I actually detest the work.

About a year ago I suggested to one legal department that had contacted us for an "electrocution" survey to contact one of the other survey firms that have contracts with them. I had recently talked to them and they rarely used their scanner, except for existing sub-station work (few and far between). The attorney called me back, thanked me for the lead, and was excited about having a "digital" exhibit for the proceedings.

I haven't had one call for this since then. Good riddance, I hope the other folks do well with it.

Thanks to all for the input. Very enlightening.