Automated BIM Reconstruction of Full-Scale Complex Tubular Engineering Structures Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Due to the accumulation of manufacturing errors of components and construction errors, there are always deviations between an as-built complex tubular engineering structure (CTES) and its as-designed model. As terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) provides accurate point cloud data (PCD) for scanned objects, it can be used in the building information modeling (BIM) reconstruction of as-built CTESs for life cycle management. However, few studies have focused on the BIM reconstruction of a full-scale CTES from missing and noisy PCD. To this end, this study proposes an automated BIM reconstruction method based on the TLS for a full-scale CTES. In particular, a novel algorithm is proposed to extract the central axis of a tubular structure. An extended axis searching algorithm is applied to segment each component PCD. A slice-based method is used to estimate the geometric parameters of curved tubes. The proposed method is validated through a full-scale CTES, where the maximum error is 0.92 mm.