This paper presents the use of laser tracking technology for structure monitoring. In this field the use of this precise instrument is innovative and therefore new investigations are needed for civil structures, especially for applications carried out during unstable environmental conditions. On the other hand, as laser trackers are today very used in industrial applications aimed at collecting data at high speed with precisions superior to ±0.05 mm, they seem quite promising for those civil engineering applications where numerous geodetic tools, often coupled with mechanical and electrical instruments, are usually used to inspect structure movements. This work illustrates three real civil engineering monitoring applications where laser tracking technology was used to detect object movements. The first one is a laboratory testing for the inspection of a beam (bending moment and shear). The second experiment is the stability inspection of a bridge. The last experiment is one of the first attempts where laser trackers tried to substitute traditional high precision geometric leveling for monitoring an important historical building: the Cathedral of Milan. The achieved results, pro and contra along with some practical issues are described.

Date Published: 23 May 2013
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 8791, Videometrics, Range Imaging, and Applications XII; and Automated Visual Inspection, 879106 (23 May 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2019997

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8791:
Videometrics, Range Imaging, and Applications XII; and Automated Visual Inspection
Fabio Remondino; Jürgen Beyerer; Fernando Puente León; Mark R. Shortis, Editor(s)