ScannerRoboter

ScannerRoboter is a class of autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robots designed to capture high-fidelity scans of physical environments, objects, or documents. They are used to digitize assets, support inventory control, and enable remote inspections in settings such as warehouses, archives, museums, construction sites, and industrial facilities.

Typical configurations combine a mobile base (wheeled, tracked, or drone-based) with scanning hardware such as LiDAR or structured-light 3D scanners, depth cameras, high-resolution color cameras, and often barcode or RFID readers. Data can be processed onboard using embedded processors or streamed to a remote system for processing.

Navigation and perception rely on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), obstacle avoidance, and sometimes GPS for outdoor work. The robots can operate autonomously on predefined routes, or in semi-autonomous modes under human supervision.

Output and formats include point clouds (PLY, LAS), meshes (OBJ), panoramas, and annotated inventories. Scanning workflows support OCR, barcode recognition, and material or surface metadata capture. Interoperability with inventory management software and digital archives is common.

Applications include stock taking in warehouses, asset management in facilities, digitization of libraries and museums, quality control in manufacturing, and scanning for research or conservation purposes. Variants may include modular scanning heads, additional lighting, or robotic arms for close-range capture.

Challenges include occlusion, lighting variations, power constraints, and data processing demands. Privacy and security considerations arise when scanning in public or sensitive areas.