A Sliding System Based on Single-Pulse Scanner and Rangefinder for Pile Inventory

Pile inventory is a common practice in terrestrial laser scanner applications. However, there are two main challenges when using the traditional terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for pile inventory. One is the high cost and the other is the unreachability problem within a limited space. This letter develops a cost-effective system combining two single-pulse scanners and a rangefinder. The sensors are coupled together on a sliding rail to collect 3-D points for pile inventory. The proposed system is applied to an indoor scenario in a gold and copper open-pit mine. We investigate the effect of inclination angles on the point cloud. In addition, the generated point clouds are compared with those obtained by an advanced scanner in simultaneous localization and mapping configuration. The comparison shows higher completeness when using our proposed system. Cross-validation results show ~99.9% repeatability of the proposed system for pile inventory.