Modeling Terrestrial Laser Scanner Data for Precise Structural Deformation Measurement

Abstract

A modeling strategy has been developed that permits coarse-precision terrestrial laser scanner observations to be used to accurately measure vertical deflections of deforming beams. The model is developed from fundamental beam-deflection equations and implemented using a weighted-constraint, least-squares curve-fitting approach. After the solution is computed, a statistical testing procedure is applied to assess the level of contribution of each of the estimated parameters in the model and identify redundant terms for removal. Two terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs) are employed to test the approach by measuring the vertical displacement of beams undergoing controlled loading for which the magnitude of displacements was at the