Terrestrial Laser Scanning – New Perspectives in 3d Surveying

Laser scanners are used more and more as surveying instruments for various applications. With the advance of high precision systems, capable of working in most real world environments under a variety of conditions, numerous applications have opened up. In the field of surveying laser scanners open up a new dimension with data capturing. Different industrial sectors require precise data of the environment in order to be able to have a as-build documentation of the facility. Especially as build documentation of plants (automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical etc.) has become a very sensitive and important new segment, as companies need to document their facilities. This is a basic requirement to plan and evaluate emergency situations (evacuation scenarios etc.) but also for simulation purposes of specific manufacturing cycles (car assembly etc.) as well as design studies. Having the environment in 3D as a CAD model (“digital factory”) open up design studies without changing anything in the real environment and therefore causing no down time of production lines. This paper reports about several systems and physical technologies used for measuring distances and presents several products available in this area. Furthermore it presents technical specifications of different systems and summarises with a comparison of achievable results.