{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T03:40:17Z","timestamp":1768448417164,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,2]],"date-time":"2019-02-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1549065600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100010198","name":"Ministerio de Econom\u00eda, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de Espa\u00f1a","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DPI2016-76380-R"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DPI2016-76380-R"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100010198","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Mobile scanning systems are being used more and more frequently in industry, construction, and artificial intelligent applications. More particularly, autonomous scanning plays an essential role in the field of the automatic creation of 3D models of building. This paper presents a critical review of current autonomous scanning systems, discussing essential aspects that determine the efficiency and applicability of a scanning system in real environments. Some important issues, such as data redundancy, occlusion, initial assumptions, the complexity of the scanned scene, and autonomy, are analysed in the first part of the document, while the second part discusses other important aspects, such as pre-processing, time requirements, evaluation, and opening detection. A set of representative autonomous systems is then chosen for comparison, and the aforementioned characteristics are shown together in several illustrative tables. Principal gaps, limitations, and future developments are presented in the last section. The paper provides the reader with a general view of the world of autonomous scanning and emphasizes the difficulties and challenges that new autonomous platforms should tackle in the future.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11030306","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,5]],"date-time":"2019-02-05T11:31:07Z","timestamp":1549366267000},"page":"306","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Autonomous Mobile Scanning Systems for the Digitization of Buildings: A Review"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Antonio","family":"Ad\u00e1n","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"3D Visual Computing and Robotics Laboratory, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Paseo de la Universidad, 4, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6462-4531","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Blanca","family":"Quintana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"3D Visual Computing and Robotics Laboratory, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Paseo de la Universidad, 4, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain"}]},{"given":"Samuel A.","family":"Prieto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"3D Visual Computing and Robotics Laboratory, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Paseo de la Universidad, 4, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lehtola, V.V., Kaartinen, H., N\u00fcchter, A., Kaijaluoto, R., Kukko, A., Litkey, P., Honkavaara, E., Rosnell, T., Vaaja, M.T., and Virtanen, J.-P. (2017). Comparison of the selected state-of-the-art 3D indoor scanning and point cloud generation methods. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9080796"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"86","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2014.12.006","article-title":"Semantic mapping for mobile robotics tasks: A survey","volume":"66","author":"Kostavelis","year":"2015","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Almadhoun, R., Taha, T., Seneviratne, L., Dias, J., and Cai, G. (2016). A survey on inspecting structures using robotic systems. Int. J. Adv. Robot. Syst., 13.","DOI":"10.1177\/1729881416663664"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Sequeira, V., Goncalves, J.G.M., and Ribeiro, M.I. (1996, January 19). 3D reconstruction of indoor environments. Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Lausanne, Switzerland."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"181","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2003.09.004","article-title":"An autonomous mobile robot with a 3D laser range finder for 3D exploration and digitalization of indoor environments","volume":"45","author":"Surmann","year":"2003","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Strand, M., and Dillmann, R. (2008, January 20\u201323). Using an attributed 2D-grid for next-best-view planning on 3D environment data for an autonomous robot. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation, ICIA 2008, Changsha, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICINFA.2008.4608017"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Blaer, P.S., and Allen, P.K. (November, January 29). Data acquisition and view planning for 3-D modeling tasks. Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Blodow, N., Goron, L.C., Marton, Z., Pangercic, D., R\u00fchr, T., Tenorth, M., and Beetz, M. (2011, January 20\u201330). Autonomous semantic mapping for robots performing everyday manipulation tasks in kitchen environments. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2011.6094665"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"148","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jvcir.2013.07.006","article-title":"A probabilistic framework for next best view estimation in a cluttered environment","volume":"25","author":"Potthast","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Vis. Commun. Image Represent."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Charrow, B., Kahn, G., Patil, S., and Liu, S. (2015, January 17). Information-Theoretic Planning with Trajectory Optimization for Dense 3D Mapping. Proceedings of the Robotics: Science and Systems, Rome, Italy.","DOI":"10.15607\/RSS.2015.XI.003"},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Iocchi, L., and Pellegrini, S. (2007, January 12\u201313). Building 3d Maps With Semantic Elements Integrating 2D Laser, Stereo Vision And IMU On A Mobile Robot. Proceedings of the 2nd ISPRS International Workshop on 3D-ARCH, ETH Zurich, Switzerland."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"425","DOI":"10.1016\/j.aei.2014.06.002","article-title":"A mobile robot based system for fully automated thermal 3D mapping","volume":"28","author":"Borrmann","year":"2014","journal-title":"Adv. Eng. Inform."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"186","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2017.04.016","article-title":"As-is building-structure reconstruction from a probabilistic next best scan approach","volume":"94","author":"Prieto","year":"2017","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"38","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2018.01.009","article-title":"SLAM-driven robotic mapping and registration of 3D point clouds","volume":"89","author":"Kim","year":"2018","journal-title":"Autom. Constr."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"291","DOI":"10.1007\/s10514-016-9610-0","article-title":"Receding horizon path planning for 3D exploration and surface inspection","volume":"42","author":"Bircher","year":"2018","journal-title":"Auton. Robots"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1680","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2017.2655144","article-title":"A Two-Stage Optimized Next-View Planning Framework for 3-D Unknown Environment Exploration, and Structural Reconstruction","volume":"2","author":"Meng","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cviu.2016.05.008","article-title":"Automatic large-scale three dimensional modeling using cooperative multiple robots","volume":"157","author":"Kurazume","year":"2016","journal-title":"Comput. Vis. Image Underst."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Heng, L., Gotovos, A., Krause, A., and Pollefeys, M. (2015, January 26\u201330). Efficient visual exploration and coverage with a micro aerial vehicle in unknown environments. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2015.7139309"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"927","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2008.08.005","article-title":"Towards 3D Point cloud based object maps for household environments","volume":"56","author":"Rusu","year":"2008","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"68","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2014.02.021","article-title":"Productive modeling for development of as-built BIM of existing indoor structures","volume":"42","author":"Jung","year":"2014","journal-title":"Autom. Constr."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2015.04.001","article-title":"Automatic BIM component extraction from point clouds of existing buildings for sustainability applications","volume":"56","author":"Wang","year":"2015","journal-title":"Autom. Constr."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cag.2014.07.005","article-title":"Automatic room detection and reconstruction in cluttered indoor environments with complex room layouts","volume":"44","author":"Mura","year":"2014","journal-title":"Comput. Graph."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"915","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2008.08.001","article-title":"Towards semantic maps for mobile robots","volume":"56","author":"Hertzberg","year":"2008","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Lee, Y.-C., and Park, S. (2013, January 25\u201329). 3D map building method with mobile mapping system in indoor environments. Proceedings of the 2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), Montevideo, Uruguay."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2013.2253172","article-title":"Obtaining Liftoff Indoors: Autonomous Navigation in Confined Indoor Environments","volume":"20","author":"Shen","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Biswas, J., and Veloso, M. (2012, January 14\u201318). Depth camera based indoor mobile robot localization and navigation. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Saint Paul, MN, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2012.6224766"},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"9","article-title":"Robotic Mapping of Cultural Heritage Sites","volume":"40","author":"Borrmann","year":"2015","journal-title":"ISPRS Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"699","article-title":"6D SLAM-3D Mapping Outdoor Environments","volume":"34","author":"Lingemann","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Field Robot."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3655","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-015-2473-0","article-title":"Interactive scan planning for heritage recording","volume":"75","author":"Ahn","year":"2015","journal-title":"Multimed. Tools Appl."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Biber, P., Andreasson, H., Duckett, T., and Schilling, A. (October, January 28). 3D Modeling of Indoor Environments by a Mobile Robot with a Laser Scanner and Panoramic Camera. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Sendai, Japan."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Thrun, S., Hahnel, D., Ferguson, D., Montemerlo, M., Triebel, R., Burgard, W., Baker, C., Omohundro, Z., Thayer, S., and Whittaker, W. (2003, January 14\u201319). A system for volumetric robotic mapping of abandoned mines. Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422), Taipei, Taiwan."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jun, C., Youn, J., Choi, J., Medioni, G., and Doh, N.L. (October, January 28). Convex Cut: A realtime pseudo-structure extraction algorithm for 3D point cloud data. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hamburg, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2015.7353929"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wolf, D., Howard, A., and Sukhatme, G.S. (2005, January 2\u20136). Towards geometric 3D mapping of outdoor environments using mobile robots. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Edmonton, AB, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2005.1545152"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.1145\/358669.358692","article-title":"Random sample consensus: A paradigm for model fitting with applications to image analysis and automated cartography","volume":"24","author":"Fischler","year":"1981","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1006\/cviu.1999.0832","article-title":"MLESAC: A New Robust Estimator with Application to Estimating Image Geometry","volume":"78","author":"Torr","year":"2000","journal-title":"Comput. Vis. Image Underst."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Connolly, C. (1985, January 25\u201328). The Determination of next best views. Proceedings of the 1985 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, St. Louis, MO, USA."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Yamauchi, B. (1997, January 10\u201311). A frontier-based approach for autonomous exploration. Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation CIRA\u201997. \u201cTowards New Computational Principles for Robotics and Automation, Monterey, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Song, S., and Jo, S. (June, January 29). Online inspection path planning for autonomous 3D modeling using a micro-aerial vehicle. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Singapore."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"643","DOI":"10.1016\/j.aei.2016.08.003","article-title":"Semantic scan planning for indoor structural elements of buildings","volume":"30","author":"Quintana","year":"2016","journal-title":"Adv. Eng. Inform."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Furrer, F., Burri, M., Achtelik, M., and Siegwart, R. (2016). RotorS\u2014A Modular Gazebo MAV Simulator Framework, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-26054-9_23"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rohmer, E., Singh, S.P.N., and Freese, M. (2013, January 3\u20138). V-REP: A versatile and scalable robot simulation framework. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Tokyo Big Sight, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2013.6696520"},{"key":"ref_42","first-page":"199","article-title":"BlenSor: Blender sensor simulation toolbox","volume":"Volume 6939 LNCS","author":"Gschwandtner","year":"2011","journal-title":"Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)"},{"key":"ref_43","unstructured":"Holz, D., Basilico, N., Amigoni, F., and Behnke, S. (2010, January 7\u20139). Evaluating the Efficiency of Frontier-based Exploration Strategies. Proceedings of the 2010 41st International Symposium on and 2010 6th German Conference on Robotics (ROBOTIK), Munich, Germany."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/11\/3\/306\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T12:30:48Z","timestamp":1760185848000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/11\/3\/306"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,2]]},"references-count":43,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,2]]}},"alternative-id":["rs11030306"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs11030306","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,2]]}}}