Utilisation of a New Terrestrial Scanner for Reconstruction of As-Built Models: A Comparative Study

Recent studies show a great potential of improving construction productivity through using real-time applications to measure change orders and other objects to create as-built. As an enhancement to this promising concept, this paper presents the process of implementation of an efficient framework for as-built Building Information Modelling (BIM) using a new Scan Station that enables contractors to acquire accurate data and create and update the as-built models. A novel framework designed and assisted in the conversion of the raw 3D point cloud data from a laser scanner positioned at multiple locations of a facility into a compact and semantically rich model. The result of the study was compared with two other as-built models using mobile and terrestrial lidar scanners to understand the capability of each for building information modelling. It was found that the framework using the new Scan Station has a great potential to collect accurate data that can be transferred to BIM for creating as-built models. The results show that the accuracy of fine objects' dimensions varies from -2% to +2%. The comparison of the test results with our previous experiments using different scanners shows that every scanner has its own advantage for each job in construction.