Applicazioni del Laser Scanner terrestre a temi geologico-tecnici

Laser scanner is an electronic instrument capable to survey the three-dimensional geometry of an object through a laser pulse measuring the distance between the laser head and the objects surface. Accuracy, acquisition time and range varies between several commercial products. Short range (up to 50-70 m) scanners can survey in few minutes at high resolution (ca. ± 2 mm), while long range scanners (up to 2000 m) can provide a decimetric accuracy and need more acquisition time. Laser scanner has the advantage that doesn’t need passive corner reflector on the object but on the other hand the measure accuracy could be dependent on the surface characteristics (material, dielectric constant, etc.). The laser scanner output is a three-dimensional cloud of points colored by reflectance values. Both the cloud of point and the derived mesh model can be textured using a external digital images; the final result is photorealistic model of the object completely measurable. Terrestrial laser scanner technology (hardware and software) is in continues developing and several application are related to the geological survey field of application. In particular laser scanner was applied for geo-mechanical analyses, rock fall monitoring, tunnel and cave survey, glacier monitoring. Further development are planned to simplified the usage and analyses of laser data for geologist trough user friendly software tool.