ALIGNING SCANS OF AN ENVIRONMENT USING A REFERENCE OBJECT

An example method includes receiving a first plurality of coordinate measurement points capturing a portion of an environment and a reference object within the environment, the first plurality of coordinate measurement points defining at least a portion of a first point cloud. The method further includes receiving a second plurality of coordinate measurement points from a position other than the at least one aerial position, the second plurality of coordinate measurement points capturing at least some of the portion of the environment and the reference object within the environment, the second plurality of coordinate measurement points defining at least a portion of a second point cloud. The method further includes aligning the first point cloud and the second point cloud based at least in part on the reference object captured in the first point cloud and the reference object captured the second point cloud to generate a combined point cloud.