Reality capture, be it utilizing laser scanning, photogrammetry, or a combination of the two, has quickly proven to be an extremely valuable workflow for a number of different industries. As time goes on and the technology becomes both cheaper and easier to use, even more sectors are starting to find ways to benefit from the tools. With that being said, arguably the most value from the technology still comes from collecting accurate data of an asset’s current status for the purposes of performing renovations or other maintenance.
Even this use case can take a lot of forms, though, and lead to many different types of workflows. At Geo Week News, we often highlight this kind of work with end users representing a number of different companies and industries. Below, you can find five recent examples of our coverage highlighting the use of reality capture to streamline maintenance and renovation workflows.
Find links to the full articles below.
How 3D Scanning Can Help Prevent Floods Amid Growing Storm Surges
We start with a very recent story from our pages, this one covering how reality capture can be used to monitor and streamline maintenance on crucial infrastructure like floodwalls. As the article details, this project was more of a proof-of-concept as opposed to a “real” project, but there’s no doubt that 3D scanning can – and often is – be used in this kind of maintenance. Given the increasing frequency with which powerful extreme weather events are bringing harm to population centers, this kind of inspection and maintenance will need to happen more quickly and efficiently. That points to even more usage of this kind of technology.
Creating a Digital Twin of the iconic St. Peter’s Basilica
We go from critical infrastructure to one of the most iconic and culturally important structures on Earth. St. Peter’s Basilica is arguably the most important Catholic church in the world, and having been built starting in the 16th century there is plenty of maintenance required. This article highlights the work done by Italian engineering firm Italferr, who created a digital twin of the basilica to help inform renovations ahead of a major celebration in Vatican City in 2025. The article highlights all of the data they collected as well as how they collected it – a process that at some points involved balloons.
Using reality capture to keep the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs alive
Here we stick with the maintenance of old, culturally important structures, though that’s about where the similarities with St. Peter’s Basilica ends. This time, we’re talking about work to use reality capture on the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in London. Originally created based upon our knowledge of prehistoric life in the mid-19th century, many of these statues are not of real dinosaurs, but that in some ways adds to their intrigue. Given their age, there is constant need for renovation, so having accurate data from a given time is crucial to keeping the statues as close as possible to their original form.
How digital twins are changing inspection workflows for bridges and dams
Although some of the examples above have been extremely niche and specific, the reality is that much of this work is ubiquitous across the country, and really the entire world. Our infrastructure is starting to age out all around the same time, all while the workforce within the industries charged with maintaining it is shrinking. We need technology to streamline this work as much as possible, to say nothing of improve the safety. This article highlights how reality capture – along with other technologies to form a digital twin – is being used for inspecting bridges and dams.
How Alteia is leveraging NeRFs in inspection workflows
Finally, we have a look at another very common use for reality capture – power line inspections – but with a more modern twist. This article is a little over a year old now, and NeRFs have evolved a great deal since that time. Even so, there is not a whole lot of usage in the real world, but rather more theoretical possibilities. Geo Week News spoke with Alteia, however, and the French company is utilizing NeRFs along with photogrammetry for their inspections of these crucial assets.
