3-D Scanning in Truly Remote Areas

Do you think you have a challenging environment for metrology? This paper describes the Smithsonian Institution's expedition to Mongolia in the summer of 2007, with a structured light system to collect 3D scan data of stone monoliths from the Bronze Age. This expedition was characterized by travelling in Russian all-terrain vehicles for more than 1200 miles across country and on dirt tracks, passing through rivers without bridges, changing weather conditions, extreme temperature differences each day, sand- and thunder storms, being many miles from any modern civilization, and scanning under the stars.