Development, Calibration and Evaluation of a Portable and Direct Georeferenced Laser Scanning System for Kinematic 3D Mapping

Abstract

In recent years, kinematic laser scanning has become increasingly popular because it offers many benefits compared to static laser scanning. The advantages include both saving of time in the georeferencing and a more favorable scanning geometry. Often mobile laser scanning systems are installed on wheeled platforms, which may not reach all parts of the object. Hence, there is an interest in the development of portable systems, which remain operational even in inaccessible areas. The development of such a portable laser scanning system is presented in this paper. It consists of a lightweight direct georeferencing unit for the position and attitude determination and a small low-cost 2D laser scanner. This setup provides advantages over existing portable systems that employ heavy and expensive 3D laser scanners in a profiling mode.A special emphasis is placed on the system calibration, i. e. the determination of the transformation between the coordinate frames of the direct georeferencing unit and the 2D laser scanner. To this end, a calibration field is used, which consists of differently orientated georeferenced planar surfaces, leading to estimates for the lever arms and boresight angles with an accuracy of mm and one-tenth of a degree. Finally, point clouds of the mobile laser scanning system are compared with georeferenced point clouds of a high-precision 3D laser scanner. Accordingly, the accuracy of the system is in the order of cm to dm. This is in good agreement with the expected accuracy, which has been derived from the error propagation of previously estimated variance components.

Strategy for Determining the Stochastic Distance Characteristics of the 2D Laser Scanner Z + F Profiler 9012A with Special Focus on the Close Range

“…However, the derived stochastic models remain valid also in the range below 5 m. These models are relevant, e.g., for quality assurance and deformation analysis. In addition, they could be used in the system calibration leading to better estimates for the calibration parameters [ 43 , 45 ].…”

“…Both distance and incidence angle represent the influence of the scanning geometry. Moreover, a variety of studies addresses different object properties like color, material or roughness [ 13 , 31 , 32 , 35 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 43 ]. However, universal statements about the quality of laser scanner measurements can hardly be made based on these investigations.…”

Automatic Extrinsic Self-Calibration of Mobile Mapping Systems Based on Geometric 3D Features

“…These artificial targets can be ground control points signalized with retro-reflecting material [19], reference geometries like planar surfaces [20,21] or more special geometries like a half-circle surface [22]. The artificial targets must either be arranged in a specific way [20], or the positions or even the 6-DOF poses have to be provided [21]. Moreover, the artificial targets have to be identified in the point cloud which can be time-consuming and error-prone.…”

A Simple and Inexpensive 3D Scanning of Remote Objects by Robot

“…Scientist have classified 3D scanning techniques based on the tools that are used to capture the 3D image, into two main categories (Straub et al, 2015): laser-based scanning tools and imagery capturing tools. The use of laser technology is considered expensive for small projects (Heinz et al, 2015) but would produce higher quality input to the rendering software, while imagery tools (cameras) have lower costs and higher mobility characteristic (Ares et al, 2014), but the obtained images might not produce a high quality copy of the scanned object.…”