THE APPLICATION OF 3D LASER SCANNING IN THE PROTECTION OF GROTTOES AND CARVINGS IN CHINA

Abstract. With the development of 3D laser scanning technology, it has been widely used in the recording and conservation of stone cultural relics. A lot of grottoes and carvings in national key cultural heritage protection units in Shanxi, Gansu and Sichuan areas of China have been scanned by 3D laser scanner in their protection projects. In this paper, via these 3D laser scanning projects of the grottoes and carvings, technical essentials of indoor and field work in the 3D laser scanning technology of stone cultural relics are summarized. At the same time, different devices were selected and different device parameters were set on the basis of characteristics of specific relics. Thus the current situation of the relic was recorded precisely with the least storage space and the shortest working time. At last, digital results including 3D models, 2D drawings, the videos for exhibition and etc with powerful operability which meet different needs are obtained based on the original point cloud. This paper can provide some beneficial reference and experience for recording and conservation of the grottoes and carvings relics in the future.