Least Squares Orthogonal Distance Fitting of Curves and Surfaces in Space

Book excerpt: Due to the continuing progress of sensor technology, the availability of 3-D cameras is already foreseeable. These cameras are capable of generating a large set of measurement points within a very short time. There are a variety of 3-D camera applications in the fields of robotics, rapid product development and digital factories. In order to not only visualize the point cloud but also to recognize 3-D object models from the point cloud and then further process them in CAD systems, efficient and stable algorithms for 3-D information processing are required. For the automatic segmentation and recognition of such geometric primitives as plane, sphere, cylinder, cone and torus in a 3-D point cloud, efficient software has recently been developed at the Fraunhofer IPA by Sung Joon Ahn. This book describes in detail the complete set of ‘best-?t’ algorithms for general curves and surfaces in space which are employed in the Fraunhofer software.