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 2–50 mm level. Results demonstrate that the modeled TLS data, when compared to conventional monitoring equipment, such as convergent digital photogrammetry and contact sensors, achieved an accuracy that is up to 20 times higher than the TLS’s coordinate precision, thus underscoring th...

The static calibration and analysis of the Velodyne HDL-64E S2 scanning LiDAR system is presented and analyzed. The mathematical model for measurements for the HDL-64E S2 scanner is derived and discussed. A planar feature based least squares adjustment approach is presented and utilized in a minimally constrained network in order to derive an optimal solution for the laser’s internal calibration parameters. Finally, the results of the adjustment along with a detailed examination of the adjustment residuals are given. A three-fold improvement in the planar misclosure residual RMSE over the standard factory calibration model was achieved by the proposed calibration. Results also suggest that there may still be some unmodelled distortions in the range measurements from the scanner. However, despite this, the overall precision of the adjusted laser scanner data appears to make it a viable choice for high accuracy mobile scanning applications.