Framework for Real-Time Three-Dimensional Modeling of Infrastructure

Abstract

Modeling transportation infrastructure assets in three dimensions (3D) is becoming increasingly necessary for good management. Condition assessment, maintenance, operations, and construction activities are exploiting 3D models for improved visualization, communications, and process control. Acquiring 3D models rapidly can improve safety and productivity and is becoming feasible through approaches based on sparse range point clouds; however, although this approach has contextual advantages, it is ultimately limited in speed. Emerging Flash laser detection and ranging (LADAR) technology is opening up the possibility of 3D modeling at rates better than 1 Hz (real time). A framework for 3D modeling is presented that includes the dimension of time. In particular, the performance of the Flash LADAR technology is examined, and potential applications are explored. Technologies such as Flash LADAR will play an important role in real-time modeling of infrastructure assets in the near future.

State of research in automatic as-built modelling

“…As-built modelling has a large overlap with the Geometry Processing field, but the input is restricted to point clouds of infrastructure assets, and not any generic object, simplifying the problem to rigid shape analysis [33,70,107]. However, the huge amount of data to be processed (more than one hundred million points in some cases) and the high number of elements in the scene require efficient methods, and therefore generic Geometry Processing tools can not be straightforwardly applied.…”

“…This strategy reduces the memory requirements, while preserving the distinctive features of the building. In civil infrastructure, primitive detection was used as the basis of different frameworks for tasks involved with operation and maintenance [70,72,107].…”

Status quo and open challenges in vision-based sensing and tracking of temporary resources on infrastructure construction sites

“…Proper coordination of these temporary entities positively impacts on-site productivity, which in turn influences construction safety, costs, and schedule [4][5][6]. However, leading industry practices in estimating, control, and management are based on frequent manual observations and often still rely on text-based, labor-intensive, time-consuming, inefficient documentation and reporting methods [2].…”

“…The main purpose behind the research is to understand the temporal and spatial nature of critical work packages on a worksite. The intent behind such monitoring and analysis is to automatically provide critical information on construction operations for improved decision making in construction engineering and management [6].…”

Data processing for real-time construction site spatial modeling

“…However, common range point data processing approaches suffer from high computational complexity and are not robust enough to noise. These post-processing approaches could take on the order of days or weeks [3]. Manual data processing is constantly needed for modeling complex or noisy scenes.…”