Large-scale three-dimensional measurement via combining 3D scanner and laser rangefinder

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) measurement method of large-scale objects by integrating a 3D scanner and a laser rangefinder. The 3D scanner, used to perform partial section measurement, is fixed on a robotic arm which can slide on a guide rail. The laser rangefinder, used to compute poses of the 3D scanner, is rigidly connected to the 3D scanner. During large-scale measurement, after measuring a partial section, the 3D scanner is straightly moved forward along the guide rail to measure another section. Meanwhile, the poses of the 3D scanner are estimated according to its moved distance for different partial section alignments. The performance and effectiveness are evaluated by experiments.