Verification of a 3-D LiDAR Viewer for Discontinuity Orientations

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanners are increasingly being used to measure discontinuity orientations on rock cuts to eliminate the bias and hazards of manual measurements which are also time consuming and somewhat subjective. Typically LiDAR data sets (point clouds) are analyzed by sophist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rock mechanics and rock engineering 2013-05, Vol.46 (3), p.543-554
Main Authors: Otoo, James N., Maerz, Norbert H., Li, Xialing, Duan, Ye
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3-D graphics
Algorithms
Civil Engineering
Discontinuity
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Geophysics/Geodesy
Lidar
Light
Orientation
Original Paper
Rock
Rocks
Scanners
Slope stability
Stability analysis
Three dimensional
Three dimensional models
Vegetation
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Summary:Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanners are increasingly being used to measure discontinuity orientations on rock cuts to eliminate the bias and hazards of manual measurements which are also time consuming and somewhat subjective. Typically LiDAR data sets (point clouds) are analyzed by sophisticated algorithms that break down when conditions are not ideal, for example when some of the discontinuities are obscured by vegetation, or when significant portions of the rock face are composed of fractured facets, weathering generated surfaces, or anything that should not be identified as a discontinuity for the purposes of slope stability analysis. This paper presents a simple LiDAR point cloud viewer that allows the user to view the point cloud, identify discontinuities, pick three points on the surface (plane) of each discontinuity, and generate discontinuity orientations using the three-point method. Additionally, a test of our 3-D LiDAR viewer for discontinuity orientations on rock cuts in the United States of America and Canada is presented.
ISSN:0723-2632
1434-453X
DOI:10.1007/s00603-012-0366-3