Automatic thermographic and RGB texture of as-built BIM for energy rehabilitation purposes

Rehabilitation of the existing building stock is a key measure for reaching the proposed reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions in all countries. Building Information Models stand as an optimal solution for works management and decision-making assessment, due to their capacity to coordinate all the information needed for the diagnosis of the building and the planning of the rehabilitation works. If these models are generated from laser scanning point clouds automatically textured with thermographic and RGB images, their capacities are exponentially increased, since also their visualization and not only the consultation of their data increases the information available from the building. Since laser scanning, infrared thermography and photography are techniques that acquire information of the object as-is, the resulting BIM includes information on the real condition of the building in the moment of inspection, consequently helping to a more efficient planning of the rehabilitation works, enabling the repair of the most severe faults. This paper proposes a methodology for the automatic generation of textured as-built models, starting with data acquisition and continuing with geometric and thermographic data processing. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.