An Assessment of Errors and Their Reduction in Terrestrial Laser Scanner Measurements in Marmorean Surfaces

The need for accurate documentation for the preservation of cultural heritage has prompted the use of terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) in this discipline. Its study in the heritage context has been focused on opaque surfaces with lambertian reflectance, while translucent and anisotropic materials remain a major challenge. The use of TLS for the mentioned materials is subject to significant distortion in measure due to the optical properties under the laser stimulation. The distortion makes the measurement by range not suitable for digital modelling in a wide range of cases. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and discuss the deficiencies and their resulting errors in marmorean surfaces documentation using TLS based on time-of-flight and phase-shift. Also proposed in this paper is the reduction of error in depth measurement by adjustment of the incidence laser beam. The analysis is conducted by controlled experiments.