Abstract. Ant3D is a fisheye multi‑camera system for 3D mapping in confined environments, designed and refined over a seven‑year period. This paper has two aims: to present the latest tests reflecting recent system developments and to summarize the design journey and milestones. We compare three successive surveys tests conducted in the same challenging test site: meandering masonry interiors and rock‑cut passages within San Vigilio Castle (Bergamo, Italy). The 2018 test used a low‑cost GoPro multi‑camera rig; the 2020 test used Ant3D v1, a custom prototype improved based on the previous experiences; the 2025 test employed the first industrialized Atom‑Ant3D, integrating SLAM‑based pose estimation, pose‑graph optimization, and SLAM‑aided SfM to accelerate processing. The comparison considers reconstruction drift against a TLS ground‑truth point cloud and processing times. Results show Ant3D v1 achieves high accuracy (max deviation ~3cm) but required extensive processing times (~20h), Atom‑Ant3D offers major time savings (~4.5h) with moderate accuracy trade‑offs, and the GoPro rig performs worst. The discussion outlines design and processing guidelines for reliable, fast mapping of narrow spaces.
Perfetti et al. (Thu,) studied this question.