{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T13:17:14Z","timestamp":1778591834087,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,30]],"date-time":"2018-01-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1517270400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Spanish project","award":["DPI2015-65186-R"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DPI2015-65186-R"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Multi-beam lidar (MBL) rangefinders are becoming increasingly compact, light, and accessible 3D sensors, but they offer limited vertical resolution and field of view. The addition of a degree-of-freedom to build a rotating multi-beam lidar (RMBL) has the potential to become a common solution for affordable rapid full-3D high resolution scans. However, the overlapping of multiple-beams caused by rotation yields scanning patterns that are more complex than in rotating single beam lidar (RSBL). In this paper, we propose a simulation-based methodology to analyze 3D scanning patterns which is applied to investigate the scan measurement distribution produced by the RMBL configuration. With this purpose, novel contributions include: (i) the adaption of a recent spherical reformulation of Ripley\u2019s K function to assess 3D sensor data distribution on a hollow sphere simulation; (ii) a comparison, both qualitative and quantitative, between scan patterns produced by an ideal RMBL based on a Velodyne VLP-16 (Puck) and those of other 3D scan alternatives (i.e., rotating 2D lidar and MBL); and (iii) a new RMBL implementation consisting of a portable tilting platform for VLP-16 scanners, which is presented as a case study for measurement distribution analysis as well as for the discussion of actual scans from representative environments. Results indicate that despite the particular sampling patterns given by a RMBL, its homogeneity even improves that of an equivalent RSBL.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18020395","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,30]],"date-time":"2018-01-30T05:02:34Z","timestamp":1517288554000},"page":"395","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Analysis of 3D Scan Measurement Distribution with Application to a Multi-Beam Lidar on a Rotating Platform"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1095-4775","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jes\u00fas","family":"Morales","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Victoria","family":"Plaza-Leiva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9994-6239","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anthony","family":"Mandow","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7469-8112","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jose","family":"Gomez-Ruiz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Javier","family":"Ser\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alfonso","family":"Garc\u00eda-Cerezo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Robotics and Mechatronics Lab, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2016.06.016","article-title":"Data acquisition technologies for construction progress tracking","volume":"70","author":"Omar","year":"2016","journal-title":"Autom. 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