Out Of Straigness normally requires running a wheel along the top of the pipe with a bathy/digiquartz attached. The wheel accurately measures where it is as it goes along the pipe whilst survey log the depth readings.
The pipe can be a few km long, dont see how the laser positioner could help with that.
For metrology, at present its normally done with an acoustic LBL array although I have heard of laser range finders being used more for ranging. Again, a bathy/digiquartz is placed at a pre-determined location (flange etc.) measurements taken, then fly the route logging bathy/altimeter readings to the other end. This is usually done a few times to work out the mean.
If the laser positioning was more accurate/easier to deploy etc. then it could be useful.
