Surveying and mapping a cave using 3d laser scanner: the open challenge with free and open source software

Abstract. The present work is part of a series of activities involving different skills, in order to explore and document in detail one of the most visited caves in Liguria Region. In this context, in addition to speleologists, geologists, videographers, the geomatic expertise has also been involved to carry out a laser scanner survey, in order to produce a three-dimensional model of the two more easily accessible rooms of the cave.

The survey was carried out using Z+F IMAGER® 5010 instrument and the post processing operations related to registration of point clouds have been made with Z+F LaserControl®.

Subsequently, two different free and open source software were used: MeshLab, to merge the point clouds and to obtain the final mesh, and CloudCompare, to make filtering on the previous results and to extract sections.