FARO Orbis: hybrid mobile and tripod scanning in one device

FARO unveiled Orbis at INTERGEO in Berlin on 10 October 2023. It is the first scanner that is genuinely both things: a handheld SLAM unit built on GeoSLAM technology for walking capture, and a stationary scanner using FARO's Flash technology when it sits on a tripod.

Why hybrid matters

Every mobile scanner trades accuracy for speed. Orbis lets the operator decide room by room. Corridors, car parks and open warehouse floors are walked; plant rooms, structural connections and anything with tight tolerances get a stationary Flash scan, and both land in one registered cloud.

• Continuous 360° imagery while walking, about ten times faster than a static scanner.
• Local or cloud processing through FARO Sphere, with colourised clouds ready for Revit.
• One device, one carry case, which matters when a Spatialist is flying to a site.

Our take

Orbis sits between the NavVis VLX 3 and the Focus Premium in the VirtualSpace fleet. It is the recommendation for mixed sites, such as a hospital wing where most of the floor is corridor but the mechanical rooms need survey-grade detail.