Segmentation of Range Data into Rigid Subsets using Planar Surface Patches

A. P. Ashbrook, R. B. Fisher, C. Robertson and N. Wergi
Department of Artificial Intelligence
The University of Edinburgh
5, Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL
anthonya@dai.ed.ac.uk

Abstract:

In this paper we consider one issue of the problem of automatically constructing geometric models of articulated objects from multiple range images. Automatic model construction has been investigated for rigid objects, but the techniques used do not extend easily to the articulated case. The problem arises because of the need to register surface measurements taken from different viewpoints into a common reference frame. Registration algorithms generally assume that an object does not change shape from one view to the next, but when building a model of an articulated object, it is necessary for the modes of articulation to be present in the example data. To avoid this problem we propose that raw surface data of articulated objects is first segmented into rigid subsets, corresponding to rigid subcomponents of the object. This allows a model of each subcomponent to be constructed using the conventional approach and a final, articulated model to be constructed by assembling each of the subcomponent models. We describe an algorithm developed to segment range data into rigid subsets based on surface patch correspondences and present some results.

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Anthony Ashbrook
Fri Jul 11 10:33:28 BST 1997