Dimensional measurements in the shipbuilding industry: on-site comparison of a state-of-the-art laser tracker, total station and laser scanner

Thanks to recent technological innovations, some large-volume-metrology measuring instruments—that would have been considered out of context one/two decades ago—are now effective for the shipbuilding industry, where dimensional errors of a few millimetres are generally tolerated. This paper considers three state-of-the-art instruments: a laser tracker , a total station , and a laser scanner , all with the latest generation of technology. While the first instrument type has long been widespread for applications in industrial metrology , the last two have traditionally been used in other fields, such as as-built surveying , civil engineering , architecture and topography . Instruments are compared using experimental tests concerning the dimensional verification of cruise-ship modules in the relatively under-explored context of the construction of the hull , which represents the ship’s framework. The comparison is structured based on several qualitative and quantitative criteria, including but not limited to ( i ) simplicity of use for operator(s), ( ii ) time of acquisition/analysis of measurement data, ( iii ) metrological performance , and ( iv ) cost . The main contribution of this article is the on-site testing of instruments of interest, in the typical (unfavourable) working conditions of shipyards.