On the tradeoff between data density and data capture duration in 3D laser scanning for production system engineering

Paper in proceeding, 2016

3D laser scanning is a technology for capture of spatial data in three dimensions. The technology originates from the field of surveying and has since been spread to several other application areas. In the realm of production system engineering, 3D laser scanning is primarily used to verify equipment installation. Lately applications for the 3D scan data are emerging also when it comes to the planning of the installations and the use of the equipment. The motivation for using 3D scan data in the case of planning is primarily to have up-to-date and verified spatial data, including any undocumenter alterations from drawings and models. The process of capturing 3D scan data requires access to an unmoving production system which can be costly, either due to stopping produciton or by accessing it during nights or weekends. The more detailed the data collection is, the more time is required. Therefore there is a need to accurately define and plan the minimum data density requirement. This paper evaluates the effect of data density, and thus data collection duration, in a production system application. Data capture duration is shown to impact the usability of the resulting data. To further understand the trade-off and be able to use it as decision support there needs to be an analysis of the additional time and data storage costs created by increasing the number of scan locations.