Cave BIM: One Good Thought Inspires Another. . . and Another

Jeremy Garczynski, APM/VDC  recently watched Cave Explorer/Engineer Dave Stone’s TED Talk on how remote laser-scan technology is used to map the Cenote Zacaton and its impacts on space exploration.

The talk is 17 minutes long but the “good stuff” starts at about 7:45. This makes me think about how this can be used to gain existing conditions in prohibitive spaces such as large, confined crawl spaces, utility tunnels and historic buildings with closed off areas. These areas maybe unsafe for humans but a remote vehicle (think bomb diffuser vehicles a la military operations) can gather valuable information for our projects.

This, along with a wearable building mapping system, developed by an MIT research team, inspired Drew Dana, Cost Engineer/VDC.

After thinking about Jeremy’s email about ‘cave BIM’, I stumbled upon this video which made me completely rethink the concept of a walk thru during an initial RFP process.  While they didn’t show it here, I wonder if this technology has the ability to generate a fully 3D model allowing for virtual walkthroughs. I can imagine showing up to the next tenant fit up wearing one of these and strolling around the building collecting data for subs to take virtual walkthroughs to determine logistics.