B4 - Group 6 Project Topic - Laser Scanning - Mark Lodato

Laser scanning (Group 6: Kai Waechter & Mark Lodato)

The topic that Kai and I are doing for the term project is laser scanning and its applications in construction, renovations, and maintenance. Laser scanning has an enormous potential application in the construction industry and it is beginning to be used today. Its largest application is scanning an existing building or structure prior to beginning renovations on that structure. Essentially what laser scanning does is scan a building in order to locate the MEP framework or defects within the building that cannot be seen unless walls or ceilings were removed. These scans are then directly imported into a BIM program that can reproduce these scans as design plans within the BIM program to be manipulated within the program. This allows for efficient and non-destructive evaluation of the structure as well as simplicity in designing the renovation details themselves [1], [2].

This topic was chosen because it interests both Kai and me very much in that it is a sophisticated use of technology in our field of interest (structural engineering) in a concentration that also interests us (non-destructive evaluation/testing). Laser scanning is an innovative way to evaluate a building and locate if there are any defects with the structural integrity or MEP framework. All of this information is vital to a contractor if they are planning to renovate an existing building, particularly if this building is large enough that it would take too much time to manually investigate the entire building. This is a waste of time and the larger the building that is under renovation, the more likely that a defect could be missed due to human error. Laser scanning is connected to intelligent building because it is a technique that involves the use of technology in order to make a vital part of the design process streamlined and more efficient [1], [2].

                Some challenges to laser scanning are cost of implementation, technological availability, and integration. Standard surveying and manual inspection and evaluation techniques are still much more cost efficient ways of accomplishing the same task than laser scanning. Laser scanning is still a relatively new technology, and, therefore, is not widely available to a lot of companies. Also, if a company is not using BIM programs in their designs, then laser scanning would be of no use to them. The third most obvious challenge with laser scanning is integration into the BIM programs themselves. Because this is still a new technology there are often integration problems. Scans often have to be edited slightly and processed within the BIM programs before they can resemble plans. However, as the technology evolves, as with most technological advances, these problems should be alleviated in due time [3].

Sources:

[1] http://fieldlens.com/blog/building-better/guide-3d-laser-scanning-construction/

[2] http://www.faro.com/en-us/products/3d-surveying/faro-focus3d/overview

[3] http://rhodes-group.com/newsletter/winter-2012/scanning-the-third-dimension-a-look-at-3d-laser-scanning-in-the-construction-industry-and-beyond/

**Edit**

Comment 1: http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b4-group-b-cummings.html

Comment 2: http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/02/b4-group-b-shields.html