Metrological evaluation of contrast target center algorithm for terrestrial laser scanners

Abstract Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLSs) are used in a variety of large scale scanning applications such as reverse engineering, assembly of aircraft or ships and surveying. Contrast targets are used with such instruments for enabling scene registration or to establish a scale when used on a scale bar. Currently, the algorithms to calculate the centers of contrast targets (CCT) are either proprietary to the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or not precise and accurate. Some of these algorithms may also operate only on OEM's proprietary data format. To overcome these limitations, a novel algorithm was developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to calculate the center of contrast targets. Several targets in various orientations were scanned by one TLS and their centers were calculated by both the NIST algorithm and one OEM software. The results show that the NIST algorithm is robust, addresses many data quality issues and has better precision than the OEM software in most cases.