Can market specialization reduce the entry cost of automated largescale 3D-scanning of movable artifacts for culture and heritage preservation?

Abstract: Automated, large-scale 3D-scanning systems are important tools in culture and heritage preservation that allows museums and art institutes to digitize their collections of movable artifacts for the purpose of preservation, research, and exhibition. Unfortunately, the cost of these systems limits their usage to a handful of wealthy museums and art institutes. This thesis explores if it possible to significantly reduce the cost of such a system by presenting a viable automated, large-scale, 3D-scanning system for movable artifacts tailored to the needs of museums and art institutes. To achieve the thesis goal a market analysis was conducted to identify the need and requirements museums and art institutes have for these kinds of systems. The market analysis also explored available systems on the market and how museums and art institutes use them. The result of the market analysis identified a specific type of automated, large-scale, 3D-scanning system design suitable for market specialization. Based on the market analysis requirements for such a system design were specified and developed into a mechanical design and hardware architecture. These were then used to construct and evaluate a limited prototype as a way of validating the mechanical design and hardware architecture. The remainder of the work consisted of a cost analysis which used the hardware architecture and mechanical designs to estimate the material and component cost to produce a single unit of the developed system. The results of this thesis show that it is probable that market specialization significantly reduces the cost for museums and art institutes to purchase an automated, large-scale, 3D-scanning system compared with available market alternatives.