Low‐cost smartphone LiDAR for 3D cave mapping: comparing mobile and terrestrial laser scanning methods

This article demonstrates how a built‐in mobile‐device LiDAR sensor can be used to produce practical and reliable 3D cave models. Using Agios Georgios Cave in Kilkis, Greece, as a real field example, an iPhone 13 Pro Max equipped with the Polycam app was used to document cave passages, chambers and the vertical connection between levels. The results were directly compared with high‐resolution data from a FARO Focus3D laser scanner. The workflow presented here shows how a non‐specialist can collect, process and evaluate LiDAR data using only a smartphone and highlights where such an approach performs well and where it encounters limitations—particularly in vertically complex spaces. These results illustrate the value of smartphone mobile‐device LiDAR as an accessible tool for cave documentation and geoscience field work while also providing a step‐by‐step example that practitioners can replicate.