3d Modelling of Structures using terrestrial laser scanning technique

In recent times, interest in the study of engineering structures has been on the rise as a result of improvement in the tools used for operations such as, As-built mapping, deformation studies to modeling for navigation etc. There is a need to be able to model structure in such way that accurate needed information about positions of structures, features, points and dimensions can be easily extracted without having to pay physical visits to site to obtain measurement of the various components of structures. In this project, the data acquisition system used is the terrestrial laser scanner, High Definition Surveying (HDS) equipment; the methodology employed is similar to Close Range Photogrammetry (CRP). CRP is a budding technique or field used for data acquisition in Geomatics. It is a subset of the general photogrammetry; it is often loosely tagged terrestrial photogrammetry. The terrestrial laser scanning technology is a data acquisition system similar to CRP in terms of deigning the positioning of instrument and targets, calibration, ground control point, speed of data acquisition, data processing (interior, relative and absolute orientation) and the accuracy obtainable. The aim of this project was to generate the three-dimensional model of structures in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos using High Definition Surveying, the Leica Scan Station 2 HDS equipment was used along with Cyclone software for data acquisition and processing. The result was a 3D view (of point clouds) of the structure that was studied, from which features were measured from the model generated and compared with physical measurement on site. The technology of the laser scanner proved to be quite useful and reliable in generating three dimensional models without compromising accuracy and precision. The generation of the 3D models is the replica of reality of the structures with accurate dimensions and location.