TLS data for cracks detection in building walls

Nowadays, non-destructive remote measuring techniques are popular methods applied in civil engineering, and one of them is terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). The poor condition of buildings is a very significant aspect of the construction field. Symptoms such as cracks and other discontinuities of the building's wall can be detected using TLS [3], [4], [5], [1]. For the authors, it is important to exploit the full potential of this methodology. In addition to 3D spatial coordinates, terrestrial laser scanners also register radiometric information of laser beams reflected from scanned surfaces, so-called intensity. In the authors' opinion analyses of both types of information lead to more reliable cracks detection. The authors examined how the technical parameters of the scanner and the ‘geometric’ conditions of the measurement affect the results. The obtained results enabled the authors to explore possibilities and limitations of TLS and allowed them to develop a measurement methodology for detecting building wall cracks using a terrestrial laser scanner. The collected datasets contains point clouds from the measurements of special sample with cracks and measurements of real buildings in poor technical condition.