Proposed power turbines
inside existing Byllesby Dam
powerhouse modeled from
HD scan data.
Fusion of modeled existing dam, spillway,
and powerhouse with point cloud data.
Continued from page 14
Individualized solutions
HD scanning can also increase efficiency and expedite
processes. Say, for instance, operators of a dated substation
wanted to add equipment to the structural steel and
needed to measure a bolt pattern. The electrical current
would not allow for measurements by hand, so operators
would have to temporarily de-energize the substation. HD
scanning would allow the data collection to occur while the
equipment is operating.
HD scans are helpful with transportation projects, too,
particularly in busy roadway corridors.
“We’ll use it to collect all the data we need and then
extract the data in the office where it’s safer – as opposed
to the surveyor walking down the road physically collecting
the data,” Cappeart said.
In addition to transportation design, other applications
16│ TRENDS
for HD scanning include bridge and overhead obstruction
clearance, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance,
substation and utility infrastructure, change detection (load
stress and settling), and emergency road and structure
design. Severe flooding wiped out roads and structures
throughout northern Wisconsin in July 2016. Repairs were
urgently needed, and within two days an Ayres survey crew
mobilized to one affected project site, using the HD scanner
to capture the needed data without having to access the
unsafe washout area.
“HD scanning offers a way to get in and get out quick with
more data than you could ever get with traditional survey,”
Ingram said, explaining that while traditional survey might
collect data at 10-foot intervals, the HD scanner picks up
detail at 1/8-inch spacing. “The density is hundreds of times
more dense.”