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The Next 3D Scanning Frontier: Transportation BIM and Augmented Reality

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As I stand back and look at where 3D laser scanning has led us as a company, I am both pleased and confident that the world of 3D virtual design and engineering is healthy and growing fast.

I recently met some truly amazing people from all over America and Europe who are doing some very forward thinking things with 3D virtual reality in both transportation BIM systems and augmented reality. Here’s a snapshot of what I saw:

Transportation BIM Systems

I was in Washington, DC, a few weeks ago speaking at a large corporate meeting and had the opportunity to see a fascinating presentation on the San Francisco Bay Bridge construction.

The construction cost will come in around $7 billion (yes, billion). The metrics are staggering, but there are four major construction firms working on the project.

Cal Trans has scanner crews scanning the progress on a weekly basis. Because of this, there was room in the budget and the available technology to do real time clash detection of the existing and proposed construction.

Because the bridge was designed in 3D (really in 5D), engineers were able to save big bucks on relatively simple components. For example, the 3D scan allowed them to get real time views from the proposed security cameras underneath the bridge. As a result, the actual number of cameras was cut in half, saving several million dollars.

Crews also used 4D (time) clash detection to view when a new component of the bridge was being constructed while an existing component was still in place. The 4D BIM model, when clashed against the existing model at that moment in the construction sequence, showed that there were interferences in temporary construction items.

Though the clashes would not have interfered with the final design, they did interfere with the interim design and would have slowed construction. This knowledge allowed the designers and contractors to make modifications to the sequences before there was an actual problem.

Just a few years ago, this capability would have been unheard of!

One of the more astonishing things I saw was a 5D construction sequence video that showed the bridge’s proposed construction slide bar and dollars spent on overtime as the bridge was coming out of the ground or water. This enabled you to compare construction costs to the bridge’s progress. At this same time, the 3D graphic was color-coded to show the four separate contractors and their workflows.

This all sounds complicated – and it was – but through the 3D engineering process, you could view the time estimates, add the construction dollars, and come to a very natural conclusion as to what was actually taking place. You could confirm that one contractor had finished his new section before another section was tied into it.

A 3D video showing a major component – like how the cabling system would be threaded through the bridge to provide the final structural support – was also very intriguing to watch.

Augmented Reality

This may be one of the biggest and best changes that I foresee coming to the construction industry.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a live view of a real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer generated sound, video, graphics or GPS data. If you consider that most new construction will first be built by engineers and designers in 3D in computers, then you may see where we are going with this.

With the base designed in 3D, you can then place a “target” in a construction zone. A target for augmented reality can really be anything as long as a tablet or cell phone can recognized it as graphic signal to launch 3D BIM programs.

These targets are used to orient the tablet to the exact same design point as where the construction is occurring on the ground. When targets are scanned with a tablet, the original design for that exact spot of construction is displayed. As the tablet is moved around this area, you can view the construction in 3D at a specific location.

Here’s an excellent example: Assume that you have a three-sided, multi-story concrete opening for a proposed staircase. By scanning the target placed in that area, construction workers can see on their iPad or Android tablet exactly what the finished product will look like. Not just a flat drawing on 600 sheets of blue lines, but the 3D model of how it will actually fit into the opening.

And remember: the world is international and these projects are under construction all over the world. By doing this, we just transcended the language barrier. We just solved the problem of expert tradesmen who are great at their craft but may not read details on blueprints that well. We just got a crew of 2-5 construction workers from a point of unknown to a point where everyone has a perfect mental picture of what is going to be constructed. That’s a huge step!

One of the oldest sayings for any worthwhile project is, “Begin with the end in mind.” What a great way of accomplishing this.

As a testimony to how well this is working, many construction companies have been rolling out flat screen computers onsite to show superintendents actual BIM models by sequence. All throughout the day, they are used over and over by the workers who are building bridges, buildings, and infrastructure around the world.

These rolling 3D models are helping to get projects constructed right the first time. They are preventing construction problems and saving big money. Very soon, I believe that all of this will be done with either special glasses or projection screens.

Currently, the only obstacle slowing the process is having a way to orient a 3D BIM model real time inside of a building. Outside, it can be done with GPS. But inside, it is more challenging.

However, augmented reality will very quickly make paper plans obsolete. I have seen it in too many places and have seen the benefits. It is coming and will soon be a standard. All of the major construction companies are embracing this technology.

Another real use of augmented reality will be in the operations of the finished building. The technology already exists to allow a maintenance worker to go up to a motor or valve (or any piece of equipment that has a target) and scan it with his tablet or phone.

This opens up a computer database so that he can see the last maintenance schedule and the internal parts of the machine. If he services the machine, his data is automatically sent to the company database and is available for anyone to review. Or, if a repair is needed, he can launch a video of how to take apart the machine and replace any part he needs.

This brings the power of the “owner’s manual” and the entire knowledge stored in the computers running the facility in real time 3D to the exact point it is needed. Imagine the implications if you own a complex manufacturing facility.

In just the past seven years, I have seen strides that were only imagined 10 years ago. But today, it’s all happening – and there are very creative people all over the country working on even more and more innovations. It’s an exciting industry to be working in!

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Tate Jones has over 40 years of experience in land and aerial surveying and was one of the country’s earliest adopters of 3D laser scanning technology. A nationally recognized expert in the field of 3D data capture, he has worked with hundreds of clients in the engineering, architectural and construction industries. Contact him at tjones@lasurveying.com,  tjones@3DLaserSurveys.com or visit www.3DLaserSurveys.com.

The Future of Laser Scanning: 5 predictions for design and construction

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In a few weeks, I am speaking at a conference about the future of laser scanning in the design and construction world.

The audience will be members of a top international construction firm that is very progressive in its use of BIM and 3D laser scanning, so it got me thinking about some of the research I have done and observations I’ve made at various 3D laser conferences over the last eight years.

Based on the incredible innovations in our field in the last decade, I have five predictions as to how high definition scanning will change design and construction in the near future:

#1: Rapid and creative increase in the use of the technology. 

When GPS hit the market in 1992, we were early adopters of the technology and found great savings for our workflows as a result. For one, what used to take us two to three weeks of field surveying could now be done in just hours.

While there is still pushback in some sectors of the design industry related to laser scanning, contractors are largely on board. No other single group gets a better return on investment for the dollars spent on laser scanning.

Every major building contractor I know is using the technology in some way. The reason is simple. If something is designed from old plans and doesn’t fit, it is the contractors who will have to pay to make it fit. They live in the world of construction schedules and why is not nearly as important and when and how much!

The use of this technology will only increase in the future. Currently, 3D laser scanning technology is being used to show floor flatness with 3D contours well before the new floor is built. As a result, if there are any critical departures from the plans, they can be fixed for a fraction of the cost of what it would be once the walls are already in place.

BIM models are being compared to the laser scan in real-time so minor changes can be made before they turn into a major – and expensive – problem.

As we go forward, I see a time that scanners will be attached to each floor of a building as it goes up and will robotically scan at appropriate times, allowing the laser point cloud to be compared and clashed every night or even hourly to the BIM model to detect changes between the design and construction.

This technology has already reduced the cost of construction and will go upstream to reduce the cost of project insurance because it lowers risk.

#2: Video vs. Laser Scanning?

Ironically, one of the innovations of 3D laser scanning will be using the laser less and the iPhone more.

For many years, “close” range photography has been able to create accurate as built information. Used by experts who understand the survey control necessary and the techniques required, the results could be better than laser data.

Now there are firms writing software that can produce point clouds using video or multiple pictures of the same object (which is what video really is). With no control, it does not have the same accuracy as lasers, but the cost is significantly less.

There is a debate in the 3D world whether this will replace laser scanning or compliment it. I suspect the latter.

One study I read said that creating point clouds from photography currently was about 98% as accurate as a laser scan on smaller areas. That said, if you measured a room that was 100-feet long with a point cloud based on photography, it could theoretically give you a resulting measurement of only 98-feet long.

Consider this: How many times is 2% good enough? The truth is, many times it is. One of the oldest problems in scanning is how to get above the ceiling tiles to document the utilities above.

Getting a scanner up there is slow and expensive. Removing the tiles is slow, dirty and expensive. But if you could remove a few tiles and snap a few pictures, you could get an accurate inventory of what was there and where it was going that would be extremely helpful.

Much research is being done in this field, but I think in a very few years – depending on the specifications – we will be using cameras as often as lasers.

#3: Intelligent point clouds

This is where much of the research in software is going.

Right now, there are some programs that can model pipe correctly between 70% and 90% of the time. They can also recognize walls and show some, but not all, of the flat surfaces.

While this is a huge step forward, if only 80% are right then you have to check 100% to see which are wrong. You would not want to order a couple of hundred feet of the wrong size pipe and have in onsite only to find that it was the wrong diameter.

In the design world, it has always been our opinion that no data is much better than bad data.  Ironically, the current software does have excellent object libraries, so you can isolate the point cloud of a structural I-beam and ask the software to find the right part and it does a great job. However, though it is a more reliable process, it is a manual process.

I believe this problem will be completely solved in less than two years and the use of point clouds will increase exponentially.

#4: Why create a model at all?

At the risk of creating total confusion, there is a growing group of expert users that ask this very question, why model at all? Their thinking is that when you model, you change the shape of the object scanned and the cleaned point cloud is a better representation of an object.

That being said, with the ability to bring the point cloud into design programs, more professions – especially the high precision users – are designing inside the point cloud and not from a model.

I saw a fascinating presentation by a satellite designer. When another payload was added to the satellite, he would not work off the plans, but instead scan the existing satellite in the next room and use that point cloud for the additional design. Of course, we don’t all have the luxury of having a working copy of the design next door.

The important point here is that for critical design, the point cloud is closer to reality than the model. The other realization is that nothing is ever built exactly as it was designed.

#5: Advanced data capture platforms

This will be one of the biggest changes and most fun to watch.

Currently, we use helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, automobiles, trucks, off road vehicles, boats, and tripod-based systems to collect data. Though these work well for most uses, many of the projects that need scanning are in dangerous conditions. (Tunnels, large underground pipes, underground mines, failed construction areas, high voltage transformer stations and nuclear power plants.)

All of these areas have one thing in common: they are unsafe.

Enter drones and walking robots. When the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, failed and melted down, the level of radiation was so high that the workers could spend very little time inside the radiation zone.

The team brought in a small drone that delivered high quality close range aerial photography and was equipped with avoidance technology so it would not fly into a fixed object. The digital information was extremely valuable in assessing the damage and did so safely with little human risk.

I have already seen experimental drones equipped with small scanners that are programmed to scan flat surfaces and recognize open areas like doors. They will go through to continue the scanning in areas that, because of gas or other dangers, would be very difficult for humans to work in. In studying the decaying infrastructure of America for rehabilitation, can you imagine being able to put a drone down the sewer systems of New York City or Atlanta and get high resolution scan data without having to put people in such an environment?

Track mounted robots are being used in the same way. These will definitely be used more and more in the future and will change the way we work.

The future of scanning is immense and the different ways we scan – the data capture vehicles and the software – will continue to evolve and become more customized to the specific industry problems presented. Point cloud data, whether collected with lasers or iPhones, is still the best data that exists for capturing and studying existing conditions.

The future will be exciting to watch and the prize goes to the person or company that can best see beneath dense foliage, behind walls, or under the ground.

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Tate Jones has over 40 years of experience in land and aerial surveying and was one of the country’s earliest adopters of 3D laser scanning technology. A nationally recognized expert in the field of 3D data capture, he has worked with hundreds of clients in the engineering, architectural and construction industries. Contact him at tjones@lasurveying.com,  tjones@3DLaserSurveys.com or visit www.3DLaserSurveys.com.