A new 3D laser-scanning and GPS combined measurement system

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is widely used because of its ability to quickly acquire high-density and high-precision 3D image and topographic data. However, it can only acquire independent coordinate system points, which restricts its application in large-scale deformation monitoring. In this study, we constructed a measurement system to acquire global coordinate point cloud data by combining TLS and GPS (Global Positioning System). The coordinate values of retro-reflective targets could be acquired in different coordinate systems, the GPS coordinate and the TLS station coordinate, synchronously. Our experiments showed that, after registration with the homonymy points acquired by 30-min short-baseline differential GPS using the ICP algorithm, the positional accuracy of the TLS retro-reflective target center in the global coordinate was better than 10 mm. This high precision meets, for instance, the requirements of coal mining subsidence monitoring. We used our new combined measurement system to acquire and process the point cloud data of a frame structure. The measurements demonstrated the practicability and robustness of the new measurement system.