SPAR 2009 Promotes Better Measurement for Success

The SPAR 2009 Conference, which took place in Denver, Colorado from March 30 to April 1, drew a diverse audience of vendors, service providers and end users of terrestrial LIDAR. The more than 600 attendees at this event speak to the strong interest in 3D data collection, and the benefits of this technology for asset management, building construction and renovation, public safety and security, and plant monitoring and management.

The event theme, “Success is Measured,” was a fitting theme for a service oriented industry that caters primarily to the slumping engineering and construction sector. Despite the trying past six months, this audience is optimistic of its prospects given the technology's ability to speed project completion with increased accuracy at lower cost than traditional surveying methods.

As a result of this conviction that scanning technologies improve business practice, there was a buzz at this event that clearly communicated opportunity. There was an impressive amount of exhibitors that showcased a number of cutting-edge solutions, sessions that were well attended, and a good deal of networking taking place.

The three morning keynote speakers provided an excellent overview of current practice and promise for terrestrial laser scanning from a good diversity of perspectives. Following are my notes from these three presentations.

Trending Toward Fusion
Hans Hess, former president of Leica and current president of Hanesco, gave the first of three morning keynote sessions on the topic, “Geomatics on the Move”. Hess started by providing some historical perspective on how far the geomatics community has come since it’s beginning some 75 years ago. From its start with theodolites, rudimentary aerial cameras, photogrammetry techniques and laser distance measurements, we now have ubiquitous GPS, laser scanning, digital imagery, mobile laser data collection at high speeds and Internet data visualization and processing tools.

3D data collection at high resolution began just eight years ago with the first LIDAR technologies. Hess emphasized that 3D capture and visualization are a natural progression for digital technology because it captures the full complexity of our world in the natural way that we see things with accurate geometries that can be used for design and engineering.

Hess noted that terrestrial LIDAR is trending toward greater fusion with other spatial data and information, including: the integration with aerial LIDAR, point clouds combined with high-resolution imagery and a fusion of different data collection technologies. A move to integrate multispectral and hyperspectral with laser scans for such applications as tunneling with measurement and feedback on the cooler areas of a tunnel bore where water is likely to occur, resulting in quick mitigation and more precise engineering input. Other technology frontiers are in close-range scanning for 3D parts inspection, and new image ranging technologies that can capture rich point information from a single laser pulse.

The application of the time element with 3D data provides some exciting application possibilities to track movements and change over time. Understanding change over time allows us to track relative movement, and the impact of different stresses on landscape such as landslides.

These pathways to growth and innovation do come with some challenges, and primary among these is the huge amount of data that is collected and needs to be processed. Hess suggests that we’ll need to develop technologies that help us better find the small details of interest within our large datasets, and that we’ll want to define and process only the areas of interest within these large data sets. {sidebar id=289}

Heritage preservation is a growing application area for LIDAR application due to the delicacy and impacts that could cause us to lose our world heritage sites forever. The high urgency of preserving records of these sites is only heightened by the potential damage from accelerated climate change. Preserving these sites in navigable 3D has strong benefit for education and for virtual tourism, with hopes that people might visit these sites from via computer from home, with less impact than visiting them in person.

The commitments being made around the world for investments in infrastructure has this entire community very excited. The fact that a good portion of funds will go toward renovating buildings, transportation and energy infrastructure plays into the strengths of terrestrial LIDAR for capturing as-built details at engineering-scale accuracy. The move toward protecting against environmental harm also plays into the industry’s strength for such applications as coastal zone management and landslide prevention.

Federal Program to Boost Use
The second morning keynote was given by Charles Matta, National Director for Federal Buildings and Modernizations in the General Service Administration's (GSA) Office of the Chief Architect and Construction Programs. GSA has been a strong proponent of 3D-4D Building Information Modeling as a means for more efficient building construction and has made a strong commitment to laser scanning as part of this program.

Not surprisingly, attendees were eager to hear from Matta, as his group is currently overseeing construction of 120 buildings at various stages of completion at a value of $5 billion. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes funds for an additional $5.5 billion of construction and repair, with $733 million going toward new buildings. And his agency is set to award nationwide contracts for laser scanning that amount to $30 million of work.

GSA has been collaborating with international organizations to establish clear standards regarding both BIM and laser scanning. GSA has their own guidance for 3D laser scanning that promotes scanning as far superior in terms of efficiency, accuracy and safety to traditional surveying methods to capture as-built data. The organization has conducted a number of scans on both exterior and interiors of existing buildings for a number of construction projects, and Matta showcased these projects from the Brooklyn GPO to the New Bern Courthouse in New Bern, North Carolina to the Miami Judicial Campus in Miami, Florida that will use detailed 3D data to create a full 4D project management application.

GSA’s commitment is instrumental in educating users of BIM that 3D laser scanning is important. The modernization of existing structures is a particularly strong use case as a comprehensive and accurate 3D model documents all details of a structure including capturing non-plumb walls and other inaccuracies that can save considerable time and effort in the process. They feel strongly that traditional approach take longer and aren’t as accurate so they’re making a strong budgetary commitment.

Matta discussed the GSA’s solicitation for nationwide 3D laser scanning and BIM services as part of his talk, indicating that the RFP would be issued soon and would be available at FedBizOpps.gov.

The Importance of 3D for Security
Dan Livecchi, project coordinator for LIDAR services at the U.S. Secret Service and current president of the International Association of Forensic and Security Metrology, discussed the use of LIDAR and visualization for special events during the final morning keynote. The secret service has been developing detailed 3D environments for all events declared as national special security events where they assume responsibility, including the Democratic National Convention that took place in Denver last summer.

Livecchi discussed the role of the 3D model for pre-event security planning and for coordination among different agencies. Livecchi’s group is responsible for creating highly accurate 3D models to create the environment, as it will look on the day of the event. I was thoroughly impressed with the realism of these models, but unfortunately was not allowed to take any photos to share.

One of the more impressive aspects of the demonstration was the sheer volume of data that the Secret Service incorporates into their models. They collect any and all information from various sources that include GIS data, stereo imagery, aerial LIDAR, ground LIDAR, CAD data and even schematics from security personnel that are drawn on slips of paper or even bar napkins.

GIS Data is collected at various levels of accuracy and complexity. The software that is used for this task includes ESRI’s ArcView, TerraSims’ TerraTools for semi-automated modeling, and BAE’s SocetSet to process stereo imagery. Airborne LIDAR data is processed using Autodesk’s Maya to turn the point data into a 3D model. Ground LIDAR is collected using Riegl scanners and processed with Riegl’s RiSCAN PRO to InnovMetric’s PolyWorks and then into Autodesk Maya. CAD drawings are imported in various formats and scanned in if necessary. They also take extensive photographs with wide-angle lenses to capture building surfaces and textures.

The Secret Service uses a three-ring approach to build a model of a location. The outer ring of an event venue is included for reference points with GIS-quality references and generic textures. The middle ring of buildings is captured at a high degree of resolution with exterior views and textures. In the inner ring, building interiors and exteriors are captured with realistic textures.

The resulting output from all this model building work includes real-time 3D models used during the event, first-person simulation and animations, line of sight analysis for proper security coverage, pedestrian flow analysis to model any necessary steps should there be a need for evacuation, and their own program called StarView that includes all of these capabilities. The Secret Service uses Virtual Battlespace for simulation and training, running scenarios to meet the needs of any first responders.

Given the profile of these national events, and heightened post 9/11 concerns, a great deal of effort and innovation has gone into creating these immersive environments, making them state of the art. The models that I viewed do an excellent job of capturing the location to make the sure that security personnel are familiar with the site, and I imagine these tools provide a phenomenal environment for event coordination and collaboration between a number of different agencies.

3D data collection and visualization has made tremendous advancements over the last few years. Talk about integrating CAD, GIS and BIM environments have now given way to action from pioneers that are showing us all what the technology can accomplish. This event provided a good deal of energy and excitement to an industry that has bright prospects as infrastructure dollars begin to be spent.

Following are links to a few Blog posts with additional coverage from the event:

earthmine Launches New Street Level 3D Mapping Offering

Automating the Extraction of a CAD Model from a Point Cloud