Can I use Structure Sensor Pro for industrial purposes?

Industrial settings require modern tools. It's important to measure wear and tear, keep an inventory of machinery, plan out factory floors, and so on.

Will either of our sensors work for you? The answer is, maybe, but there are some limitations and caveats to keep in mind.

Factory Facility Scanning

We suggest looking into industrial LIDAR-based solutions.

Scanning Equipment

Structure Sensor Pro is absolutely capable of capturing industrial equipment, but there are a few caveats to keep in mind.

Black and Reflective Objects
Black and/or reflective objects pose a particular difficulty for our sensors.

In order to capture depth, our sensors project an IR speckle pattern to the object the user intends to scan. This pattern distorts once it reaches the object, and the sensor interprets the distortion. This sort of spatial sensing is called structured light. For more in-depth information on how Structure Sensor (and all of our sensors work), please check out this video:

Black objects absorb the IR lasers, causing the objects to “disappear” to the sensor, as the light never reflects back. Reflective objects scatter the light erratically, creating random artifacts and distorted meshes.

Some users have mitigated these problems by applying a temporary paint or powder to the objects in question assist the sensor in capturing depth information.

Precision

The precision of Structure Sensor Pro can be found on this white paper. However, if you’re trying to scan 3D objects or track motion paths, the quality of results will vary widely depending on the software used. Make sure you’re using the latest Structure SDK and have tried a variety of different apps to gauge the precision and accuracy of results achievable.

We are still collecting data and running case studies but, from what we have seen working with professionals in the field is that most measurements are within 1-2% when verified against a manual tape measure or existing blueprints.

You can find more of the technical specification of the Structure Sensor on the following page: https://support.structure.io/article/367-what-is-the-difference-between-structure-sensor-and-structure-sensor-mark-ii

Still not sure? Take a look at some of the sample files in our Sketchfab.

Large objects

As a rule, object scanning is limited to the bounding box of your software. While bounding boxes can be expanded fairly large, the resolution of the scan within that bounding box will decrease.

This means that scanning objects with an extreme bounding box size (like a truck, for example), requires a different strategy.

You will need to stitch several scans together into a single, unified scan.

Stitching Scans Together
This option requires you to capture your intended object in multiple scans. You will need to mentally create a 3D grid of your object and scan each section of the grid as fully as possible.

Once all of the scans are captured, you will need to import the resulting meshes into applications like Blender or MeshLab and combine them together. For a tutorial on how to do this, please check out this video:  https://youtu.be/YLoKjR8H-JQ

Extreme Conditions

Structure Sensor Pro has been tested and rated under the following conditions: