Scanning Land

Discuss FARO hardware here.
Post Reply
planlondon
I have made 20-30 posts
I have made 20-30 posts
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 10:14 am
12
Full Name: ed james
Company Details: Plan-London Ltd
Company Position Title: Director
Country: UK
Linkedin Profile: Yes

Scanning Land

Post by planlondon »

Hi All,

We have been asked to survey a piece of land and provide a point cloud. I have two nagging questions:
1. Will the scanner/Faro Scene be able to use the trees etc to put the scans together? There are no buildings in the area.
2. Should I use spheres? We only have 6 without tripods or spikes. Is there a feasible method of working our way through the site using just 6 spheres?

Any help would be much appreciated!
thanks
max72
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 846
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:32 pm
11
Full Name: Massimo De Marchi
Company Details: Massimo De Marchi
Company Position Title: freelancer
Country: Italy
Skype Name: massimo_de_marchi
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 53 times
Contact:

Re: Scanning Land

Post by max72 »

In my opinion:
No way to scan using only trees.
How big is the land area you are planning to scan?
While you could try to do cloud to cloud with a HUGE amount of overlap it's a very risky approach.
I would use spheres and/or checkerboards, and use another instrument to cross check some control points.
In similar cases I use 30cm homemade spheres combined with the official ones.

It really depends on your error budget, but 6 small spheres are very tight, unless you use a lot of control points and register small clusters against the control point net.

Did you consider drone photogrammetry as an alternative?

Massimo
ing. Massimo De Marchi - +39 347 32 17 049 - www.studiodemarchi.net
brian715
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 199
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:24 pm
7
Full Name: Brian Boehmer
Company Details: Meridian Eng.
Company Position Title: LiDAR Technician
Country: United States
Linkedin Profile: No
Has thanked: 14 times
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: Scanning Land

Post by brian715 »

I agree with Max72. Open areas are no go with C2C. I usually scan with 5 Spheres per set, meaning 5 behind the scanner and 5 in front. I use a total of 15 so that we can keep moving without too much down time between scans. They are 200 mm spheres and can be picked up easily us to about 75 feet from the scanner. We just use Christmas ornaments with magnets on them and put them on inexpensive camera tripods. Place survey control for checks throughout the site and you should be fine. The survey control will allow you to easily identify errors in your registration that otherwise would not be visible without buildings or hard features to compare. Its impossible to see if the bush or grass is off from one scan to the next.
sooperdooper
I have made 50-60 posts
I have made 50-60 posts
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2013 12:25 pm
10
Full Name: Russell White
Company Details: HTS Advanced Solutions
Company Position Title: Mapping Operations Manager
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: No

Re: Scanning Land

Post by sooperdooper »

planlondon wrote: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:33 pm Hi All,

We have been asked to survey a piece of land and provide a point cloud. I have two nagging questions:
1. Will the scanner/Faro Scene be able to use the trees etc to put the scans together? There are no buildings in the area.
2. Should I use spheres? We only have 6 without tripods or spikes. Is there a feasible method of working our way through the site using just 6 spheres?

Any help would be much appreciated!
thanks
Ed,
Have you considered utilizing UAS based LiDAR?
Randy Wag
I have made <0 posts
I have made <0 posts
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2016 11:34 am
7
Full Name: Randy Waguespack
Company Details: Inspections
Company Position Title: Inspector
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: No
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Scanning Land

Post by Randy Wag »

For outdoors with windy conditions, filled 5gal buckets with cement with a 3' long 4" PVC pipe in the bucket sticking up over the bucket a couple of feet. Place a sphere of your choice on top of the pipe. Not too big and not too small but, typical in size, vollyball or soccer ball. Partially deflate the ball and fill with water. Make sure the grass is freshly cut and use Civil 3D to do topography.
User avatar
LPaulCook
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 485
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:42 pm
8
Full Name: L Paul Cook
Company Details: Land surveyor doing LiDAR
Company Position Title: President
Country: United States
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Santa Barbara CA
Has thanked: 47 times
Been thanked: 44 times
Contact:

Re: Scanning Land

Post by LPaulCook »

Just today I scan 4 to 5 Acres using 8 200mm sphere, my FARO X330 and geo-referenced checkered targets. Vacant land and C2C don't work. Survey targets with a total station at extremities to be sure of your accurcies.

For targets at 100+ feet I use 1/2 setting at quality 1 or 2, mostly 2. I sure don't want to find out later that I didn't get enough points on a sphere to use it.... better spend a little longer time in the field....

This took me 8 hrs. to do today. 36 scans in all. Processing now....as I sleep!

I have some checkered targets printed on sheets of hard plastic by FedEx that I nail to trees. They work too.

You have other inexpensive spear suggestions above.

You need more targets than you have now or your just guessing.

Hope that helps.
Good night.
L. Paul Cook, PLS
www.LPC3D.com
planlondon
I have made 20-30 posts
I have made 20-30 posts
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 10:14 am
12
Full Name: ed james
Company Details: Plan-London Ltd
Company Position Title: Director
Country: UK
Linkedin Profile: Yes

Re: Scanning Land

Post by planlondon »

Thanks for all your replies guys!

The Land is 1.5 acres and is mainly open. There is a small building on the site, so I was thinking I could scan all round it closely and hope to use it from further away to assist with registration. We now have 12 145mm spheres which I was going to space out at 15m as I work my way around the site. Is this too close or too far?

We are doing this as a favour to an architect as a rush job so haven't had time to try and organise a drone unfortunately.

The wind will be about 20mph so I may follow your advice and tick some checkerboards on boards and nail to the trees.

Cheers,
ed
rhtshi
I have made <0 posts
I have made <0 posts
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:42 pm
8
Full Name: Rohatash
Company Details: K K Geo System Pvt. Ltd.
Company Position Title: Director
Country: India
Linkedin Profile: Yes

Re: Scanning Land

Post by rhtshi »

We have customers regularly using Faro Scanners for Topography Surveying In India. We suggest customers to use Total Station with Scanner for Geo-Referencing Each scan, so that no overlapping is required and shifting of stations can be at longer distances and output can be much higher. We suggest customers to use Prism Spheres to geo-reference.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
johngordon6189
I have made <0 posts
I have made <0 posts
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 5:47 pm
7
Full Name: John Gordon
Company Details: Rouse-Sirine Associates Ltd
Company Position Title: Cad Manager
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: No

Re: Scanning Land

Post by johngordon6189 »

You would not do a cloud to cloud registration if you are using spheres, it would be target based. You would need to have a few spheres in the project to be on control points if you want to georeferenced the data. We utilize 9" (220 mm) spheres on range poles with bipods. You can utilize the building walls for plane as well, but you shouldn't have to if you are using enough spheres to target.
User avatar
landmeterbeuckx
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 1615
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 5:19 pm
11
Full Name: Lieven Beuckx
Company Details: Studiebureau Beuckx
Company Position Title: Owner
Country: Belgium
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Has thanked: 183 times
Been thanked: 548 times

Re: Scanning Land

Post by landmeterbeuckx »

Aside from the way to solve this i just don't understand that you just don't buy some extra spheres.

If you're in business they are costs. If you cannot afford some extra spheres you are asking way to little money for your jobs. These extra spheres pay off in 4 or 5 jobs.

Just my 2cent
LSBbvba
Surveying services - 3D Laserscanning
Tel : +32477753126
www.lsbbvba.be
[email protected]
Post Reply

Return to “FARO”