Building an digital model of an earthwork site for autonomous excavator operation

Thanks to technological advances, current-generation laser scanners are capable of acquiring very accurate three-dimensional geometry of large physical objects such as buildings and infrastructures such as bridges, besides smaller objects such as mechanical parts. Although there still exist several technological issues such as errors and shadowed areas that are omitted from the scan data, current-breed laser scanners can effectively cover large areas like an earthwork site. This research aims to build a digital model of an earthwork site, whose terrain geometry is continuously updated as excavation and earthmoving continues until its completion.