Standalone Terrestrial Laser Scanning for Efficiently Capturing AEC Buildings for As-Built BIM

With the increasing popularity of as-built building models for the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, the demand for highly accurate and dense point cloud data is rising. The current data acquisition methods are labour intensive and time consuming. In order to compete with indoor mobile mapping systems (IMMS), surveyors are now opting to use terrestrial laser scanning as a standalone solution. However, there is uncertainty about the accuracy of this approach. The emphasis of this paper is to determine the scope for which terrestrial laser scanners can be used without additional control. Multiple real life test cases are evaluated in order to identify the boundaries of this technique. Furthermore, this research presents a mathematical prediction model that provides an indication of the data accuracy given the project dimensions. This will enable surveyors to make informed discussions about the employability of terrestrial laser scanning without additional control in mid to large-scale projects.status: publishe