Using 3D laser scanning to support discrete event simulation of production systems: lessons learned

Using 3D laser scanning, the spatial data of an entire production system can be captured and digitalized in a matter of hours. Such spatial data could provide a current state representation of the real system available at the hand of the simulation engineer. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of 3D laser scanning in Discrete Event Simulation (DES) projects in the area of production systems. The evaluation relies on three simulation studies performed with the support of 3D laser scanning. 3D scan data, if available, can support most steps in a DES study. Particularly, the 3D scan data acts as a reference model when formulating the conceptual model and collecting input data. During model building the scan data provides physical measurements for accurate positioning of simulation objects. Furthermore the scan data can be used for photorealistic visualization of the simulated environment without requiring any CAD modeling.