Published on 8 January 2024

Laser scanning

Laser scanning refers to the linear or grid-based scanning of surfaces or objects with a laser beam in order to measure them, process them or produce an image. 

There are two areas of application for laser scanning:

• Terrestrial laser scanning on the ground
• Aerial laser scanning from an aircraft or helicopter

With terrestrial laser scanning, a scanner mounted on a tripod scans the surroundings. By contrast, aerial laser scanning is a highly dynamic method: here, during the scan it is also necessary to measure the position and orientation of the scanner.

With both methods the object or terrain is scanned using a laser beam and the distance between the scanner and the object is measured. Within a few minutes, a point cloud is formed comprising millions of measured points. In this way, data can be obtained relating to the form and structure of the surface.

Link

• LiDAR data acquisition