Structured-light three-dimensional scanning for process monitoring and quality control in precast concrete production

Quality control is a crucial step in the fabrication of precast concrete products. There are three critical quality features: the fabrication consistency of surface finish, the dimensional accuracy of the overall geometry, and the positioning accuracy of the embedded parts. Existing quality control methods rely on tape measures and inspectors' experience, which may lead to measurement inconsistency, operator faults, and safety hazards. This paper proposes an innovative real-time quality inspection system for the three critical quality features. The system first uses a structured-light three-dimensional scanner to capture the surface and geometric data from the precast concrete parts and then calculates and visualizes the deviations by applying specially developed algorithms. In addition, all of the functions are compiled into a graphical user interface that can be easily used by operators without a data analytics background. The system has been tested on a precast concrete sample with five different surface finishes in five regions of the sample, complex geometries, and a variety of embedded parts. The experiment results show that the proposed quality inspection and data analysis system can obtain critical quality information efficiently and accurately.