Laser Scanning for Road Profiles - Case Study Example

Laser Scanning for Road Profiles Name Institution Laser Scanning for Road Profiles Introduction Laser scanning is the process of used in surveying from 1998. The process is a new technology that does precise surveying. The technology is getting into the minds of several surveyors and engineers in the name of getting accurate measurements once in a difficult situation. The technology is efficient in measuring inbuilt environments like in a building. The tool collects the point whose data is of great interest at the proper rate of 50,000 points for any given second. The tool has a good range of operation of 400’ to 500’. There are several setups associated with scanning once inside a room of a given building. However, there is a model of interests can help in the development of a 3D Model basing on the condition of the ground. The conditions should be of a real nature as to allow the proper operation of the surveying tool. There should not be any disturbances. The disorders could include constant movement of the ground because of vibrations, which makes it a problem when it comes to taking readings from the instruments. There are several times when vibration occurs, but they should not be that vast and significant. The different models generated are then necessary for the making of three-dimensional features. The result is that the feature helps in the creation of two-dimensional Engineering drawings such as AutoCAD structural, mechanical and Survey drawings. The tool helps in the production of Architectural two-dimensional drawings too. Another importance of Land scanning is the creation of three-dimensional computer models that need a lot of precision as compared to others. The tools help in the making of Survey documents such as the survey sheets used in the making of roads in Civil Three Dimensional programs commonly known as civil 3D. For example in developing road profiles in civil 3D, one has to have surveying points. The points should be from the field and placed into a file on the computer that uses them when Civil 3 D runs to generate road profiles. The survey points are the data points measured by Laser scanning. The essay centres on the use of Laser scanning as a tool for surveying in determining distances on a road profile that could be either vertical or horizontal. A profile is the representation of the road showing all the features along its axis. A vertical profile will show the different level of cuts and fills made along the road at given chain age points. Several questions relate to the implementation of this new technology. These include What are advantages of using Laser scanning over other types of measuring? How are new features important? How do the new features help in the measurement of roads? Uses of Laser Scanning There are several applications of Laser Scanning. These include: 1. There is a reduction in costs of construction. For example once taking distant measurements, one does not need to reach the distant point whose distance is in want. The laser travels fast enough to get to the point of interests and then bounced back to the original point where the instrument is. The moment the reflected laser signal is back, the measurement comes on the display screen. 2. The overall project time reduces as a result of having fast, measurements which in turn inspires construction to set off at a similar pace that is fast enough to realize the project completion on the required date. 3. Since the measurement is fast, costs run on the flat side as not to affect the overall funding of the given project. 4. Laser scanning promotes the making of documents that are as in and as built in environments. The measuring of distances in internal areas is possible and bases on existing facts on the ground. 5. Laser scanning provides data in terms of volume of quantities if material and their relating topographic features. For example on roads, the amount of cut and fill soils are determinable. Once civil 3D is running, one can calculate the values of lands undercut and filled. Background The practice and use of Laser scanning have existed right from the 1960’s. There was no breakthrough into the Engineering world not until towards the end of the Century around the late 1990’s. There was a program called the Cyrus Technology created in 1933 that made the initial scanners used for the processes of measuring by Engineers and Surveyors. However, in 2001 the company made more tools that used three-dimensional measurements in operations. The problem in the late, mid-1910’s was that the Laser scanner was still new to several people. The technology was not in advance movement because the hardware associated with it was too expensive to make. Most companies could not attach themselves to expensive adventures such as making equipment for Laser scanners over the years (Maltamo 2014). Currently, there is still a problem with external hard drives as they are too large to bear. One cannot use email to mailing them to a destination, as they are too heavy. GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and Land scanning started at the same time in history. GPS was only for military operations but now; it is in cars to show the positions of vehicles as the move from one point to another. Now, Engineers especially on road operations are in most needs of Land scanning, as measurements are necessary in order to draw the entire artistic and technical way on a computer. Other professionals in the same need of Laser scanning are Architects, Surveyors, and game developers who use the feature for games such as X-box. In the game, the scanner scans the players in the required time while determining the sizes and shapes of all the features associated with the game. The future prospects of Land scanning are many. One is the development of three-dimensional points in to define the real surfaces as they are in the real world. There are efforts by several programs to uplift the final work product over the years. Many people are not happy with the fact that the used cloud is beautiful but of too much size to handle. Therefore, the only solution involves the use of a typical pointer for clouds ranging from ten until one hundred Gigabytes making most of the CAD programs hard to render. It is of no wonder that several massive projects in design software like AutoCAD and Arch card take longer times to make the project handled. So there are efforts to avoid complaints on the laser scanning issue where the data is of no use at all. The problem is that the company responsible for making the scanners is not in a position to tell the limitations and adequacy of the land scanner and so data used is useless. Several technicians are on the move to manufacture area scanners that have well-stated limitations on them to show to any user the capability of the machine. Other companies tell clients to use the point cloud as the inside model once in the process of Laser scanning for the operating system of a given software. The argument is that this way of operation helps to conduct an adequate and precise detection while measuring distances in the field. Information on Laser Scanning The importance of Laser scanning lies in the fact that spatial data captured by the technology works on the principles of laser light. The spatial locations and related shapes and positions of the required object under study have several points of recording. The fact is that each of the points has a longitude, latitude and height in the YXZ coordinate system of operation. In most cases, one scan provides a whole set of data for a given are of interests. The clouds with multiple points need processing and registration with respect to one another with the aim of having a combination. The combination associated with the principles and operations of space that is the model in nature. LIDAR The acronym LIDAR means Light Detection and Ranging. The word is deployable with other terms such as SONAR and RADAR as the technology used in operating all the three systems is the same in nature. The operation of RADAR is that there is bouncing of waves of radio from the concerned object. There is an analysis of the waves making their way back. On the hand, SONAR operates in a similar fashion. The dissimilarity is the presence of Sound waves and not radio waves as in the RADAR way of operation. The only next systematic and organized system is the LIDAR in the current technology evolution. The technology works in a way that there is the emission of a lift laser to given target at a distant point. There are calculations in terms of the return time for the beam of light (Maltamo 2014). The result is that there are precise measurements made for objects at stand by basing on the length of the wave and the number of times as per split second considered in the operation. The whole process reduces the costs and involves fast moving objects at the required speeds. 3D Imaging The technology is on the rise in several areas of surveying and computer application in one way or another. LIDAR helps in the determination of volumes. The volumes are of a given fixed amount of aggregates. Other materials are stones. There is a common view for concrete in the best very possible basing on computer software (Hung 2010). The 3D imaging provides information on the topographical features of a given physical infrastructure like the road showing the near houses, trees, and rivers. These features are present on the topographical map developed by other software like GPS. Civil 3D shows a road in the making once the survey points are present in the system as the roads. The real thing with 3D imaging to show the proposed size in terms of an artistic impression yet on the ground, the feature may not be present. The presence of such elements on the road to the environment of a house helps one to appreciate beauty. The programs such as ArchiCAD do a process called rendering in which an architect decides to pick which features should be present in the artistic impression. The features could be trees, people, and an attractive environment. On the other hand, the Road Engineer will develop a good profile of the road showing the cuts, fills, and elevations of the road. The engineers will go ahead and develop sections, and will lastly end with surfacing the road. On the road surface, several types of materials and corresponding layers are deployable in coming up with a road surface. The layers will range from Sub base, Subgrade to the road base and a finishing of given sizes. The selection of the sizes of these various types of layers depends on the design specifications that operate hand in hand with the civil 3D software. The product is a well design artistic road with a smooth surface and features like trees showing people and cars moving on the road. There is plenty done for one to come up such an artistic impression of the way. The impression is what people see as the future real road once completed. The print shows all the features of the way. However, there should be a calculation of the geometry of the road to determine the sizes of the lanes, super elevations (Lemmens 2011). There are several desired levels of surveys done on a conventional system in the field. Much of the data usable needs scanning to determine the right amount of data that is helpful in the understanding of the surveying process. Most of the surveys based on GPS have a single point in the YXZ system of coordinates in order to get the required topographical map. The points that are single range from ten to fifty feet in terms of distances apart from each other. The advantage of using LINDAR is giving points that are not more than an inch in term of distances apart. The other important benefit of using Laser Scanning is the ability to retrieve the coordinates of a thousand points. Several times the data collected using the laser scanning process is important in terms of what people who use it says. Most people say that the data collected using the Laser scanning process help them to determine distances and draw infrastructures such as roads and huge building in a short time possible. The advantage is that people do not get to travel long distances to get the exact distances from point to another but rather employ the Laser scanning technique to get distant measurements fast enough. It remains to thank the innovators that the ability of Laser scanning to view all things in the line sight present helps to collect spatial data (Peters 2013). Relations in Surveying There are several processes involved in Surveying. All the processes in one way have a connection with Laser scanning. Mapping The process involves the use of data from an environmental and surveying background in order to get the GIS collections for various kinds of data. The data is important in floodplain delineation. The process involves the showing of the area in certain regions that specifically belong to animals. The lasers scans bring out images that clearly mark the features associated with are mapped put for certain types of animals. The results show the underground existence of function while taken from above. One could call such a map a topographical map with features of pictures. One can see the exact position of several features while from above. These images report all kinds of features present on the ground by the time the picture was in the making (Hung 2010). Spatial Imagery Systems These systems use 3D scanning. The system can give a wanted amount of accuracy in terms of sub millimetres. The operations are almost for al use in surveying. The uses could be for survey departments for Municipalities, Mining, and several Institutions. The level of precision for Laser scanning is high. The accuracy of equipment like Spatial Imagery system is adequate. The reason is to get accurate results in the hardest of situations (Peters 2013). GIS There are several data points that relate with GIS only. The data includes terrestrial combined with land data. The terrestrial data centres on specific land zones pertaining to a particular habitat that are determinable with the help of survey points. The points provide a terrestrial map. The manufacture of the map has a basis of laser technology. The laser technology provides wanted distances from point to another on the map (Maltamo 2014). Primary Use of Laser Scanning Laser scanning is necessary for several activities. These include; 1. Get distances from far points. The distances are hard to reach yet needed. For example before a road undergoes construction, several hurdles need a solution. The way will need a profile. The only way to determine the profile of the road will be first to get all the required points of the survey. The points of the study will determine the dimensions of the road and its sections. The profile could be horizontal or vertical. The flat profile will show the total distance of the road from one point to another. The whole process happens in civil 3D in which a profile of the road is possible in the make so long as the point of the survey is in the software. The person has to make a surface of the road. The road will then be ready in an artistic way so long as steps required in making the road in Civil 3 D are beautiful and recommendable by a senior Road designer. The photos taken show the artistic way with a high quality of precision, which is only possible with the help of Laser scanning (Lemmens 2011). Distances in a building are determinable once one uses laser scanning because the light lasers can penetrate through the wall to distant areas that cannot be easily accessible at one time. Laser scanning is of vital importance in such complex situations (Large 2009). Conclusion As seen above, laser scanning is a new technology developed fully in the late 1990’s. The importance of the technology is in the reduction of construction time, and costs. Volumetric quantities for materials such as soil cut and filled in the making of a road profile are determinable by the help of Laser scanning. The technology works hand in hand with engineering and survey software like civil 3D, AutoCAD, and ArchiCAD. The new technology has a new feature as the use of laser light in connection to LIDAR and SONAR. The survey points help in the creation of the road profile in civil 3D. References Heritage, G. L., & Large, A. R. G. (2009). Laser scanning for the environmental sciences. Chichester, UK, Wiley-Blackwell. Hung, C. J. (2010). Technical manual for design and construction of road tunnels--civil elements. [Washington, D.C.], U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Institute. Lemmens, M. (2011). Geo-information: technologies, applications and the environment. Geo-Information. Heidelberg, Springer. Maltamo, M., Næsset, E., & Vauhkonen, J. (2014). Forestry applications of airborne laser scanning: concepts and case studies. Read More