Laser Scanning of Cylinders of Different Surface Materials

The aims of the experiment described were to analyse the effect of material differences and the highly curved surface of small cylinders on laser scanning data uncertainty, and to link the experimental results to theory.

To this end, seven cylinders with different surface properties were measured with a terrestrial laser scanner. The cylinders were chosen to represent materials common in the built and natural environments, in addition to having distinct reflectivity characteristics. 

The cylinders are purposefully chosen to be small relative to the resolution and beamwidth, as this has proven to be a difficult geometry reconstruction problem.

As the true cylinder locations are known, the incidence angle, cylinder distance and propagation error are quantified for each point