Assessing the Accuracy of Applying Photogrammetry to Take Geometric Measurements on Building Products
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 136, Issue 2
Abstract
The present research describes the fundamental working mechanism of photogrammetry and characterizes the errors of the photogrammetry-derived geometric measurements on building products in a systematic, practical, and statistically significant way. A site engineer simply takes snapshots of a building product with a digital camera from different angles. Back in office, the engineer derives as-built measurements through postprocessing those photos by use of photogrammetry software. The twelve objects sampled in our experiments were building products and building facilities found on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, yielding 79 paired geometric measurements (length, width, and height) by photogrammetry and by measurement tape, respectively. The biases and limitations of analyzing the agreement between two sets of measurements by regression and correlation coefficient techniques were first revealed. Then, the “95% limits of agreement” method was applied on the sample data and the confidence intervals were established for the limits of agreement derived, so as to ensure validity and statistical significance of the results. In short, the main contribution of this research lies in formalizing a statistically significant, quantitatively reliable technique to assess the accuracy of applying photogrammetry in particular applications of construction engineering. Through weighing the accuracy level achievable by photogrammetry against the accuracy level desirable in a particular application, the engineer makes the final decision on the applicability of the photogrammetry-based approach.
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Acknowledgments
The research presented in this paper was substantially funded by Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDPolyU 5245/08E).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 136 • Issue 2 • February 2010
Pages: 242 - 250
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 6, 2009
Accepted: Jun 22, 2009
Published online: Jan 15, 2010
Published in print: Feb 2010
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