Comparative performance analysis of the iPad Pro LiDAR sensor with a professional terrestrial laser scanner

In this study, the scanning and accuracy performance of the Apple iPad Pro LiDAR sensor is investigated comparatively with the performance of a professional Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS). In this context, an indoor office containing many objects of different sizes was scanned with the Leica ScanStation C10, a professional scanner, and the Apple iPad Pro LiDAR sensor using together with two different software. After the performed measurements by the scanners, three different 3-Dimensional (3D) point clouds of the work office were produced. The edge lengths of some objects in the office ranging in size from a few cm to 2 meters were measured with a steel tape measure in mm accuracy and these lengths were compared with the values obtained from the point clouds produced from two different scanners. The results of the study showed that a 3D point cloud can be produced with a root mean square error (RMSE) of +/- 0.5 cm in a small indoor environment with a professional scanner. On the other hand, it was observed that the accuracy of the point clouds produced using the iPad Pro LiDAR sensor has +/- 1-1.5 cm RMSE, depending on the software used with it. The first results obtained from this study showed that the Apple iPad Pro LiDAR sensor exhibits promising performance for indoor applications and can be an important alternative to high-cost, geodetic-type professional scanners with its low cost, portability, speed and easy usability.