High-detail modeling of Grand canal's palaces in Venice employing the Riegl vmx-250 mobile laser scanning system

Summary During the last few years mobile laser scanning operated from land and water vehicles has rapidly been becoming established for various areas of application, such as the surveying of roads, trackage, and coasts. This is based on the continuous technological advancement of the individual components, the combination of which now makes it possible to deliver highly accurate 3D point clouds at very high measurement rates. The RIEGL VMX -250 provides a compact, flexible and high-performance system for mobile laser scanning. The seamless integration of the modular camera system into the hard- and software complements the system. This report gives an overview of the system concept and demonstrates the high quality of the data, with a project to survey the palaces of the Grand Canal in Venice as an example. The ideal workflow for recording, as well as the newly developed automatic adjustment of scan data is described and analysis resulting in facade plans is outlined.