Photo By Craig Rodarte | Scanned HVAC Unit WPAFB. LiDAR allows for the pipes and fittings to be...... read more read more
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Preserving the Past, Engineering the Future:
The Robins House at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is a stunning, 7,000 plus-square-foot, Tudor-style residence with a rich history. Built in 1934, it housed Brigadier General Augustine Warner Robins, the father of modern U.S. Air Force logistics. Also known as Quarters One, it has recently been slated for renovation to modernize its infrastructure while preserving its historical significance.
To accurately document the structure and streamline the renovation process, Dan Sandrowicz, GeoBase/sUAS Engineering Ops Team Lead at Wright-Patterson, and a team of 12 experts including three geospatial engineers from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center Geospatial Engineering Branch, conducted a comprehensive Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR, scan in July 2024. Over the course of three days, they completed more than 100 LiDAR scans, generating a precise 3D model that captured the interior and exterior details down to a millimeter. This effort not only optimized material planning but also met State Historic Preservation Office standards for digital documentation.
By firing up to two million pulses a second into objects in its line of vision, LiDAR’s exact measurement ability eliminates any mismeasuring errors, saving money and time. The laser beams bounce off an object and back to the scanner where instantaneous recordings are made to create a 3D map. This process creates a point cloud of millions of points which can be used to create a ‘digital model’ of a real-world object or place that can be shared with others within the Department of the Air Force.
Using the highest setting LiDAR scans, the team generated a comprehensive point cloud of both the interior and exterior, collecting data in under 12 hours and completing over 100 setups. Data processing and finalizing the initial digital model took approximately 8 hours, efficiently handling 18 gigabytes of data.
"One of the biggest surprises was how quickly we were able to complete the project, thanks to rapid advancements in technology over the last few years," said Chris Hess, a survey technician with the 88th Civil Engineer Group. "The improvements have been so significant that an individual scan now takes as little as two minutes, compared to older systems that required anywhere from 10 minutes to over an hour per scan. Because of this efficiency, we finished the scans two days ahead of schedule, proving that the return justifies the effort when it comes to investing in modern geospatial technology."
Unlimited potential
The potential of LiDAR, in its various forms, goes beyond assisting with remodeling or construction projects; it’s a technology that can be deployed across a host of military and civilian fields. LiDAR has been used to find and map ancient cities buried under the jungles of Mexico, to map the contours of ocean floors, and to map the surface of the moon.
From post-natural disaster mapping to mapping airfield obstructions to measuring engineering projects in theatre, the limits of its functionality are still being discovered.
“We've mounted the LiDAR system onto a vehicle—a process known as Mobile Mapping—to scan a runway for cracks and support Foreign Object Debris (FOD) management, completing the data collection in just 20 minutes,” said GeoBase/sUAS Engineering Ops Team Lead, Dan Sandrowicz. Currently, runways are inspected once per shift and in some cases, personnel must conduct an FOD Walk—where a line formation visually scans the surface—requiring a full runway shutdown disrupting operations, Sandrowicz added. By leveraging LiDAR with AI technology, we can detect FOD more efficiently, minimizing mission impact.
This efficiency is critical in emergency situations. When a tornado struck the base on February 28, 2024, damaging a historic hangar, the team utilized LiDAR scanners to assist structural engineers in assessing potential underlying damage. Without access to a vehicle-mounted system, the data collection process took hours instead of minutes, highlighting the importance of rapid deployment solutions as a terrestrial unit was used instead meant more for collecting interior data.
GeoBase engineers processed the collected sUAS data, modeled the damage to prepare for the assessment and future restoration. Shawn Webster, a structural engineer with the 88th CEG, was responsible for assessing the structural integrity of the hangar. “LiDAR allowed us to quickly evaluate the entire structure, including the roof, without requiring fall protection or additional equipment,” Webster explained. “It also provided highly accurate measurements, which we used to create precise bid documents for the reconstruction process.”
LiDAR can be used to quickly quantify the size of airfields and hangars if aircraft needs to be evacuated from a site to avoid extreme weather events such as hurricanes. It also greatly reduces the time soldiers need to be on scanning missions, making it a significant safety asset.
"The type of problem you're trying to solve would dictate the best kind of technology," said Nathan Glondys, Geospatial Integration Manager with the AFCEC Geospatial Engineering Branch. AFCEC/CBFG geospatial engineers use airborne LiDAR, to capture large areas that are tens of thousands of acres, Glondys added. While LiDAR can be used for multi-million-dollar projects, it’s equally functional being deployed for everyday jobs, such as measuring an HVAC replacement system at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where knowing the volume of a space that needs to be heated and cooled is critical when it comes to energy costs along with the size of replacement parts.
Return on investment
The up-front cost of acquiring LiDAR scanners isn’t insignificant. Hand-held scanners start at around $50,000, while terrestrial systems of a kind typically used indoors or outdoors can cost around $90,000. Vehicle-mounted LiDAR systems range from around $750,000 to $1M.
Its accuracy, speed, and utility mean there’s an obvious return on investment over a period of years or even less, say those familiar with it. From a fiduciary perspective, the time saved on data collection and analysis translates into significant cost savings over the lifecycle of a project. Traditional methods often require extended man hours, downtime, and disruptions impacting a mission’s readiness. For example, vehicle-mounted LiDAR can collect data in minutes as opposed to taking hours or days with older tools, minimizing operational delays and freeing up personnel for other critical tasks.
Moreover, use of these scanners can reduce the need for physical site visits by engineers. “If I can bring a registered point cloud to an engineer, they might never have to leave their desk to take the measurements they need for project design,” says Chris Hess. “They can analyze structural components, order the correct size pipe, or even read the labels on mechanical equipment from the imagery in the point cloud. That kind of efficiency is transformative.”
For organizations such as the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center and AFCEC, this rapid accessibility ensures civil engineers can retrieve critical information quickly, enabling informed decision-making and swift project execution.
From preserving historic landmarks such as the Robins House, to revolutionizing mission-critical tasks like airfield inspections and disaster recovery, the adoption of LiDAR reflects a bold step into the future of engineering. For Wright-Patterson steeped in history yet focused on modern innovation, integrating LiDAR technology represents not only an investment in advanced capabilities but a commitment to operational excellence and the enduring stewardship of its past.
Within the DAF, LiDAR is proving that the future of engineering is here—and it’s built on speed, accuracy, and vision.
| Date Taken: | 06.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2025 10:15 |
| Story ID: | 543189 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 112 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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