Employing LiDAR Scanning for Drywall Prefabrication: A Qualitative Pilot Proof of Concept Study

摘要

The construction industry has sought many forms of improvements to materials and methods to increase productivity. Prefabrication in products, components and systems has made some headway in this arena, but overall productivity still remains largely flat as measured against all other non-farm industries in the U.S. One new technology that is starting to garner interest in the vertical construction industry is the use of LiDAR scanning, currently used primarily for large scale geospatial measuring, data capturing, and modeling. This paper explores the potential for using this technology on smaller interior components, namely gypsum panel installation, and presents a qualitative pilot proof of concept study to compel further quantitative research. As a method, LiDAR was used to produce a dense registered point cloud from which 'slices' were extracted from a VDC model; which were then used to produce prefabrication drawings for gypsum panels and measured against actual conditions. As a large scale ubiquitous material, incremental improvements to gypsum installation could have a significant impact on overall productivity in vertical construction.