Dense point cloud acquisition with a low-cost Velodyne VLP-16

Abstract

This study develops a low-cost terrestrial lidar system (TLS) for dense point cloud acquisition. Our system consists of a VLP-16 lidar scanner produced by Velodyne, which we have placed on a motorized rotating platform. This allows us to continuously change the direction and densify the scan. Axis correction is performed in post-processing to obtain accurate scans. The system has been compared indoors with a high-cost system, showing an average absolute difference of ±2.5 cm. Stability tests demonstrated an average distance of ±2 cm between repeated scans with our system. The system has been tested in abandoned mines with promising results. It has a very low price (approximately USD 4000) and opens the door to measuring risky sectors where instrument loss is high but information valuable.