Indoor Stockpile Volumes with XGRIDS K1

Thanks to Scott at Calton Land Surveying Services, we were able to put this short case study together.  

Outdoor stockpile volumes can be calculated easily using drones with photogrammetry or LiDAR.  It is a quick data capture method and results in very accurate measurement.  In some cases it is not possible to fly drones over stockpiles, whether that is because of airspace restrictions, or because the stockpiles are covered. 

Let's take this case of a 5 acres site, with one small pile and and covered area of about 78,000 square feet.  The 3D model below was generated by the K1.  Check it out for a quick look at the site.  

In this case, the most basic option is to use reflector-less shots from a total station, create a surface and calculate volumes based on those shots.  For this job that might take 6 hours to complete, and the data wouldn't be nearly as complete as a full scan.  You could improve the data and use a terrestrial scanner.  That would be more accurate operation and even speed up the process, but you would still be looking at about 4 hours of field work.  

With the XGRIDS K1, this scan was complete in 15 minutes and 29 seconds.  The average walking speed was 2.35 mph.  See the pathway walked below. 

The XGRIDS K1 generates a real-time point cloud.  The upside to the real-time scan is that it is ready as an LAS file immediately.  The downside is that it is not as dense and it may have objects in the scan that were moving while the scan was being performed.  For instance, in this case the user had the scanner in a position where it caught part of his body during the scan.  So, you can see part of the operator throughout the scan.  

In the case of calculating stockpile volumes, the real-time scan point cloud still generates a point cloud that is able to produce accurate volume calculations.

Here is the real-time point cloud data that was generated immediately and used to calculate the volumes.  Take a look at the screenshot below.  

The scan can be improved upon further by running it through LixelStudio (free with the purchase of an XGRIDS scanner.  For applications where more precise measurements need to be made on things like building corners, then you would use the more dense point cloud processed in LixelStudio.

Here is the point cloud processed in LixelStudio.  You can see the dynamic filtering has removed the operator so you no longer see the path.