A REVIEW OF GEOMETRIC MODELS AND SELF-CALIBRATION METHODS FOR TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNERS

Abstract

Terrestrial laser scanning has been shown to be an invaluable technology for engineering measurement applications such as structural deformation measurement and rockfall monitoring. In order to ensure the quality of the data captured for these and other applications, all systematic instrument errors must be properly modelled, calibrated and corrected prior to using the data in subsequent stability or deformation analyses. In one popular modelling approach, the range and angular observations from a laser scanner are augmented with additive model terms that describe the systematic errors. Self-calibration methods can then be used in order to estimate the coefficients of these models. This paper provides a review of the current state-of-the-art of terrestrial laser scanner systematic error models and self-calibration methods, supported by real-dataset examples that demonstrate the need for these processes.