Low-Cost 3D Scanning in a Smart Learning Factory

With the increased focus over the recent years on digitalizing the factory, 3D scanning has become more and more popular. Acquiring a point cloud of a given factory has shown several benefits, such as better documentation, realistic simulation models, collision detection of materials, visualization of factory development, and more. This paper investigates the testing of a developed low‐cost 3D scanner in a Smart Learning Factory based on parameters identified in literature. Furthermore, the paper compares the developed solution to a commercially available solution. This comparison indicates possible application areas for the developed low-cost solution. The 3D scanner is based on the Microsoft Kinect and a developed hardware platform combined with custom software for acquiring 360° point clouds. A discussion on the acquired results, as well as future works on the developed solution finalizes the paper.