By: Tobias Boehret, Market Segment Manager, FARO Technologies, Inc.
Picture this scenario:
You’re a contractor. About to begin work on a complex project, a mall, for instance, or some other large structure.
When completed there will be thousands of square feet of commercial space at the public’s disposal. There will be smaller areas carved out of the larger build – restaurants, shops, entertainment venues, etc. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing work (MEP) will snake through the entire structure. Placement for this piping and the spacing to ensure it doesn’t interfere with other systems will be critical. You’re on a tight budget. Project completion time is critical. Other projects are pending your approval.
Question: How do you ensure that the project’s building information modeling (BIM) aligns with the structure’s as-built condition while at the same time tracking the progress of construction and managing your assets with the optimal speed and accuracy you need?
Answer: With the FARO® Orbis™ Mobile Scanner and the FARO Focus Core, Premium and Premium Max, three related but distinct tools that rely on FARO’s patent-pending Flash Technology and are poised to transform both the terrestrial laser scanning market, and the SLAM-based mobile mapping landscape.
Complementary Products, Overlapping Technical Terminology
Instead of thinking of Focus Core, Premium and Premium Max with Flash and Orbis with Flash as competitor products, each with distinct spheres of use, it’s better to think of them as complementary devices part of a workflow continuum.
Faster and more mobile than Focus, Orbis may sometimes be the right tool for the job, especially when greater than 10-millimeter accuracy is required. Other times, a hybrid reality capture scan that combines the speed of a 360-degree panoramic photo with the accuracy of a 3D point cloud is the preferred choice. But as indicated in the above hypothetical, many project builds will require both tools as different subtasks are addressed.
For FARO customers just entering the world of Flash, a point of consideration has come up. Is a Flash scan the same between FARO Focus and Orbis? The answer is ‘It is very similar’. In both cases, it is the fastest stationary scan available today, offering exceptional speed without compromising on high quality colorization, density or accuracy. With a Focus Flash, you benefit from a colored 23 million points scan with 2mm precision captured in 28 seconds. With an Orbis Flash, you obtain a colored 19 million points scan with 2mm precision captured in 15 seconds. Now, is the technology to obtain these Flash scans the same between FARO Focus and Orbis? The answer is ‘No.’ There are important differences between Flash used for Focus and Flash for Orbis. Article II detailed how Flash for Focus employs a propriety software algorithm to upscale or interpolate the data whereby the lower-resolution 3D scan is faster to capture resulting in less data. But those “gaps” are augmented with the data captured from 360° panoramic images. That’s the “hybrid” in “Hybrid reality capture.”
With Orbis it’s a little different. There is no upscaling. There is no interpolation. Flash in Orbis’ context denotes two elements:
- The 15-second speed of static capture while the user still spends much of their time walking with the device taking SLAM-based scans.
- The additional proprietary algorithms assist in fusing the accumulated data to create a stationary scan with far greater resolution and a better precision than could be captured solely by walking with the device.
And while Focus with Flash is fast, with 28-second static capture times the norm, Orbis is almost two times faster than that, with a point cloud precision good enough for many projects.
What it comes down to is a case-by-case contractor/subcontractor calculus of which tool is the right tool for the right job, balancing speed and simplicity of use with accuracy.
What makes Flash “Flash” for Orbis is the revolutionary speed of static data capture, in range of terrestrial laser scanners for most needs, and the proprietary that enables the static imaging post processing to occur.
And all this capability is housed for the first time in a fully portable, handheld SLAM-based mobile mapping device.
Orbis in Action: A Case Study
Since nothing speaks like the voice of authenticity, the best way to envision how Orbis and Focus might work in tandem for your next project is to ask the people at Envision Construction, a Georgia-based company that relies on laser scanning technology to create accurate, photorealistic 3D representations of any environment or object.
Recently the company employed both a FARO Orbis and a FARO Focus Laser Scanner for a variety of project needs.
David Epps, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, a professional with 20+ years of construction experience, was one of the first people to get his hands on the new FARO® Orbis™ Mobile Laser Scanner and he immediately began putting the device through its paces. As he trialed the Orbis in several settings, Epps discovered a remarkable versatility to the solution, particularly in scenarios such as wooded settings, where terrestrial laser scanners often fall short.
“The beauty of the FARO ecosystem is that a terrestrial laser scanner is going to give you typically a longer range, better accuracy,” he explained. “And you also have a FARO Orbis, which is going to give you faster data capture. So, if I wanted to capture a dirt pile, I could walk around it in 60 seconds, or I can do a laser scan and capture every nuanced detail. It's a continuum of tools that allows me the versatility to really approach every problem with the right toolset.”
For Epps it comes down to time management. If he and his team only have an hour on-site, then a TLS like the Focus might not be the ideal tool. But with an Orbis, which can generate good enough scan data for most projects, suddenly a three-story building can be scanned in a tenth of the time.
But again, Epps stresses the ecosystem value of being able to toggle between the two tools in real time as sub-tasks allow. If, for instance, he needs a floor flatness check, the Focus is called back into service.
“I think they're both tools in the toolbox that I can pick up the right one depending on the job that I have,” Epps added. “And having that flexibility is really what I think is powerful about FARO’s whole product portfolio.”
Last, by harnessing FARO’s hardware and software solutions, Envision can simulate entire projects digitally, effectively “building” structures twice — first on the computer and then in the field. This virtual rehearsal not only identifies potential challenges beforehand but also provides an opportunity to rectify issues in a cost-effective manner, sparing costly rework on-site.
As Epps aptly puts it, the ability to "make mistakes digitally" significantly mitigates risks and enhances project outcomes.
About the Author
Tobias Boehret is a Market Segment Manager for FARO Technologies, Inc. A 20-year veteran of laser scanning and metrology technology, Tobias has also completed extensive digital twin research in the automotive sector and operation of production facilities. A graduate of University of Applied Science, Stuttgart, Germany, Tobias holds a BS in Photogrammetry, Surveying, and Geoinformatics.