A Coarse-to-Fine Registration Approach for Point Cloud Data with Bipartite Graph Structure

Alignment is a critical aspect of point cloud data (PCD) processing, and we propose a coarse-to-fine registration method based on bipartite graph matching in this paper. After data pre-processing, the registration progress can be detailed as follows: Firstly, a top-tail (TT) strategy is designed to normalize and estimate the scale factor of two given PCD sets, which can combine with the coarse alignment process flexibly. Secondly, we utilize the 3D scale-invariant feature transform (3D SIFT) method to extract point features and adopt fast point feature histograms (FPFH) to describe corresponding feature points simultaneously. Thirdly, we construct a similarity weight matrix of the source and target point data sets with bipartite graph structure. Moreover, the similarity weight threshold is used to reject some bipartite graph matching error-point pairs, which determines the dependencies of two data sets and completes the coarse alignment process. Finally, we introduce the trimmed iterative closest point (TrICP) algorithm to perform fine registration. A series of extensive experiments have been conducted to validate that, compared with other algorithms based on ICP and several representative coarse-to-fine alignment methods, the registration accuracy and efficiency of our method are more stable and robust in various scenes and are especially more applicable with scale factors.

Building Plane Segmentation Based on Point Clouds

Planes are essential features to describe the shapes of buildings. The segmentation of a plane is significant when reconstructing a building in three dimensions. However, there is a concern about the accuracy in segmenting plane from point cloud data. The objective of this paper was to develop an effective segmentation algorithm for building planes that combines the region growing algorithm with the distance algorithm based on boundary points. The method was tested on point cloud data from a cottage and pantry as scanned using a Faro Focus 3D laser range scanner and Matterport Camera, respectively. A coarse extraction of the building plane was obtained from the region growing algorithm. The coplanar points where two planes intersect were obtained from the distance algorithm. The building plane’s optimal segmentation was then obtained by combining the coarse extraction plane points and the corresponding coplanar points. The results show that the proposed method successfully segmented the plane points of the cottage and pantry. The optimal distance thresholds using the proposed method from the uncoarse extraction plane points to each plane boundary point of cottage and pantry were 0.025 m and 0.030 m, respectively. The highest correct rate and the highest error rate of the cottage’s (pantry’s) plane segmentations using the proposed method under the optimal distance threshold were 99.93% and 2.30% (98.55% and 2.44%), respectively. The F1 score value of the cottage’s and pantry’s plane segmentations using the proposed method under the optimal distance threshold reached 97.56% and 95.75%, respectively. This method can segment different objects on the same plane, while the random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm causes the plane to become over-segmented. The proposed method can also extract the coplanar points at the intersection of two planes, which cannot be separated using the region growing algorithm. Although the RANSAC-RG method combining the RANSAC algorithm and the region growing algorithm can optimize the segmentation results of the RANSAC (region growing) algorithm and has little difference in segmentation effect (especially for cottage data) with the proposed method, the method still loses coplanar points at some intersection of the two planes.

Precision Evaluation and Fusion of Topographic Data Based on UAVs and TLS Surveys of a Loess Landslide

In recent years, low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) techniques have become very important non-contact measurement methods for obtaining topographic data about landslides. However, owing to the differences in the types of UAVs and whether the ground control points (GCPs) are set in the measurement, the obtained topographic data for landslides often have large precision differences. In this study, two types of UAVs (DJI Mavic Pro and DJI Phantom 4 RTK) with and without GCPs were used to survey a loess landslide. UAVs point clouds and digital surface model (DSM) data for the landslide were obtained. Based on this, we used the Geomorphic Change Detection software (GCD 7.0) and the Multiscale Model-To-Model Cloud Comparison (M3C2) algorithm in the Cloud Compare software for comparative analysis and accuracy evaluation of the different point clouds and DSM data obtained using the same and different UAVs. The experimental results show that the DJI Phantom 4 RTK obtained the highest accuracy landslide terrain data when the GCPs were set. In addition, we also used the Maptek I-Site 8,820 terrestrial laser scanner to obtain higher precision topographic point cloud data for the Beiguo landslide. However, owing to the terrain limitations, some of the point cloud data were missing in the blind area of the TLS measurement. To make up for the scanning defect of the TLS, we used the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm in the Cloud Compare software to conduct data fusion between the point clouds obtained using the DJI Phantom 4 RTK with GCPs and the point clouds obtained using TLS. The results demonstrate that after the data fusion, the point clouds not only retained the high-precision characteristics of the original point clouds of the TLS, but also filled in the blind area of the TLS data. This study introduces a novel perspective and technical scheme for the precision evaluation of UAVs surveys and the fusion of point clouds data based on different sensors in geological hazard surveys.

Pengembangan Algoritma Pereduksi Noise Pada Point Cloud Data LiDAR Dua Dimensi Untuk Aplikasi Kendaraan Listrik Otonom Sederhana

Penerapan teknologi LiDAR 2 dimensi (Light Detection And Rangging) terkadang terkendala oleh adanya anomaly data atau noise sehingga mempengaruhi keakuratan dalam mendeteksi objek yang sesungguhnya. Jika tidak diatasi dengan baik maka dapat menggangu operasional kerjanya, terlebih lagi jika diterapkan pada kendaraan listrik otonom. Oleh sebab itu perlu upaya untuk mereduksi noise yang diimplementasikan pada software pemroses data LiDAR. Pada penelitian ini dilakukan pengembangan teknologi pereduksi noise yang muncul pada point cloud data LiDAR dua dimensi. Adapun konsep yang diterapkan adalah pengembangan algoritma pengolahan data LiDAR secara sistematis. Desain algoritma ini berisikan visualiasi dari pendeteksian objek, penyimpanan point cloud data LiDAR sebagai informasi objek yang terdeteksi, serta metode pengurangan noise pada point cloud data LiDAR dua dimensi tersebut. Algoritma ini di realisasikan dalam bentuk software pada perangkat keras Raspberry Pi 4, dengan menggunakan bahasa pemrograman Python. Terdapat enam Algoritma yang digunakan untuk mereduksi atau menghilangkan noise, yaitu Algoritma 1, Algoritma 2, Algoritma 3, Algoritma 4, Algoritma 5, Algoritma 6. Hasil percobaan memperlihatkan bahwa dari keenam Algoritma yang di buat mampu menampilkan visualisasi data berdasarkan sistem pemetaan 2 dimensi yang terkoreksi dari noise. Keenam Algoritma tersebut berhasil menyeleksi noise hingga 100%, meskipun kurang lebih 80% data yang dianggap benar tidak dapat disajikan. Meskipun hanya dengan 20% data benar, namun struktur objek masih dapat dikenali.

Research on Micro/Nano Surface Flatness Evaluation Method Based on Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Flatness error is an important factor for effective evaluation of surface quality. The existing flatness error evaluation methods mainly evaluate the flatness error of a small number of data points on the micro scale surface measured by CMM, which cannot complete the flatness error evaluation of three-dimensional point cloud data on the micro/nano surface. To meet the needs of nano scale micro/nano surface flatness error evaluation, a minimum zone method on the basis of improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed. This method combines the principle of minimum zone method and hierarchical clustering method, improves the standard PSO algorithm, and can evaluate the flatness error of nano scale micro/nano surface image data point cloud scanned by atomic force microscope. The influence of the area size of micro/nano surface topography data on the flatness error evaluation results is analyzed. The flatness evaluation results and measurement uncertainty of minimum region method, standard least squares method, and standard PSO algorithm on the basis of the improved PSO algorithm are compared. Experiments show that the algorithm can stably evaluate the flatness error of micro/nano surface topography point cloud data, and the evaluation result of flatness error is more reliable and accurate than standard least squares method and standard PSO algorithm.