Handheld Fisheye Multicamera System: Surveying Meandering Architectonic Spaces in Open-Loop Mode – Accuracy Assessment

Abstract. The task of digitalizing meandering complex spaces in 3D is a challenging one even with the most advanced instrumentation like lightweight terrestrial laser scanner or portable/wearable Mobile Mapping Systems (MMSs). The complexity and extension of architectonic spaces such as staircases, corridors and passages are such that the acquisition time using static devices becomes prohibitive and the accuracy using mobile devices gets affected by drift error leading to warped models or requiring abundant control measurements. This paper presents a photogrammetric portable fisheye multicamera solution for the 3D survey of complex areas that aims at being both handy and fast in the acquisition as well as more reliable ad accurate than common MMSs. The paper showcases a stress test conducted on five complex reconstruction trajectories selected from the meandering connection passages of Milan’s Cathedral. The tests are constructed as worst-case scenario to evaluate the accuracy and drift error amount of the proposed system in open-ended unconstrained paths. The results, though still suffering from moderate drift error, highlights the potential of the solution, especially in retaining the overall shape and orthogonality of the architectonic elements acquired.