The advantages of BIM technology are particularly evident on large construction sites

Nikolaus STUDNICKA

How do RIEGL plan to survive in the “BIM Age” market with the recently launched RIEGL VZ-600I Laser Scanner?

With the extremely fast RIEGL VZ-600i 3D terrestrial laser scanner, we now have the right laser scanner for professional surveying, especially for the requirements of largescale projects. In addition to extremely fast data acquisition in the field, the robust real time registration of the scan data – even under demanding conditions – takes place simultaneously during the acquisition of the scan data and the image data on board. The scanner is moved every minute from one scan position to the next and a high-resolution scan is started. The advantages of BIM technology are particularly evident on large construction sites. The RIEGL VZ-600i laser scanner enables the daily measurement of the site even under difficult environmental conditions. Once transferred to the office, the georeferenced scan data can be compared with the BIM models.

How quick is the turn-around of data acquisition and processing with this new laser scanner? Please give example of an application where speed becomes critical component.

The RIEGL VZ-600i with its 60 scan positions per hour (6 mm resolution at 10 m distance / 30 million measurements per scan & image acquisition) is currently the fastest scanner in its class.

With an average distance of 10 meters between two consecutive scan positions, e.g., almost five kilometers of road can be surveyed in one working day. With the synchronized CF-Express card, the project can be further processed within 24 hours immediately after the field work on a laptop with the fully automated “One Touch Processing Wizard” – even if it consists of hundreds of scan positions.

This speed of the RIEGL VZ-600i is a real “game changer” in the daily surveying of construction sites. With so much up-to-date data, the accuracy of the construction work can be permanently checked, the construction progress documented and compared with the BIM model. Due to the speed of the workflow, the surveying work also has hardly any impact on the other work and the use of construction machinery on the construction site.

Describe a few unique challenges that your customers have faced that RIEGL VZ-600i scanner provides and answer to.

Ease of use: If you work with a laser scanner day in, day out, all day long, it should be easy to use for hours on end. You need to be able to rely on the measurement data even under difficult conditions. The 6 kg lightweight RIEGL VZ-600i laser scanner achieves a 3D position accuracy of at least 3 mm and has three internal cameras and an integrated (RTK) GNSS receiver. Each complete scan position is triggered at the touch of a single button.

All components are designed for daily use in harsh environments: IP64 device protection class, integrated 1TByte SSD hard disk for maximum data security, additional CFexpress card for high-speed data transfer to the PC.

High-speed workflow: Speed is very important for scan-to-BIM surveying! Project examples completed in record time demonstrate the high productivity and superior performance of the RIEGL VZ-600i with spectacular results. Additional tools facilitate the user’s work in the field. With the “VZ-i Project Map” app, for example, the progress of data acquisition and registration can be continuously tracked on a mobile device.

The high-precision point clouds can also be evaluated in record time. With the “One-Touch Processing Wizard” in the RiSCAN PRO processing software, various process steps (import / filter / coloring / block adjustment / homogenization / export) can be carried out automatically on the laptop. An automatically generated PDF report provides an overview of the entire project and the accuracies achieved.

Please highlight few examples wherein particularly the newly launched laser scanner provides cost effective solution.

The RIEGL VZ-600i is a very versatile 3D terrestrial laser scanner. It is perfectly suited for both outdoor and indoor applications. The construction sector with AEC, BIM, construction site monitoring and management – of course – benefits from the highly precise and fast performance. Other areas of application are tunnel surveying or forestry, as even in these challenging environments the scan positions can already be registered in the field with the robust “voxel registration”.

Also worth mentioning: A modern ROS (Robot Operating System) interface is available for the efficient integration of the RIEGL VZ-600i on robot platforms, which further increases the scanner’s usability.