The construction management industry has a new opportunity employ autonomous 3D scanning technology to monitor construction progress. The rise of autonomous reality capture (ARC) technology is still a budding technology, but construction progress monitoring is one of the most interesting applications for the technology.
Leading providers of measuring and imaging solutions, such as Leica Geosystems, Faro, Trimble, and RIEGL, are at the forefront of the ARC revolution. The use of autonomous mobile robots equipped with high-resolution cameras and 3D laser scanners to collect a detailed digital record of building sites is one approach. The data is then converted into 3D models that may be utilized to better project planning, execution, and management.
One of the key benefits of ARC laser scanning technology for architects and engineers is the ability to capture scans at regular intervals without requiring people. The regularity of the information is important, so that construction managers can have a history of scans at different times to refer back to. Dates are always important, so these scans can be used to verify which work occurred on which date. Additionally, these scans models can be used to analyze potential conflicts or issues going on with the project.
Obviously, these robots are not cheap, and having a $200K robot roving around an busy construction site has it’s pitfalls. But for general contractors with deep pockets, an autonomous laser scanning robot dog is a great way to impress the customer and collect valuable snapshots of each day’s work.
Why It Matters
While it may seem extreme to buy an expensive robot to do a job that a worker could easily do, it’s important to recognize the significance of having a robot perform this type of work. As the robots get cheaper, smarter and more robust, there may come a day when having that robot dog makes more sense than not, and it could be out there scanning automatically, rain or shine. Robots have their drawbacks but they don’t have people problems and could become a very reliable part of the construction project. The result from robotic laser scans could lead to the creation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) files such as Autodesk Revit which can be extremely useful. They could also provide photo documentation for any number of reasons. If one is up to no good at the construction site, the robot laser scanning dog taking pictures is probably one you want to avoid. So they may take on the function of a guard dog.
We won’t go as far as to say that autonomous 3D laser scanning services are revolutionizing the construction sector quite yet. But it is easy to see how this technology could assist architects, engineers, and general contractors in managing construction site information.
