Geometric Segmentation of 3D Scanned Surfaces for Multi-Sensor Coordinate Metrology

In modern industry, multi-sensor metrology methods are increasingly applied for fast and accurate 3D data acquisition. These method typically start with fast initial digitization by an optical digitizer, the obtained 3D data is analyzed to extract information to provide guidance for precise re-digitization and multi-sensor data fusion. The raw output measurement data from optical digitizer is dense unsorted points with defects. Therefore a new method of analysis has to be developed to process the data and prepare it for metrological verification. This article presents a novel algorithm to manage measured data from optical systems. A robust edge-points recognition method is proposed to segment edge-points from a 3D point cloud. The remaining point cloud is then divided into different patches by applying the Euclidean distance clustering. A simple RANSAC-based method is used to identify the feature of each segmented data patch and derive the parameters. Subsequently, a special region growing algorithm is designed to refine segment the under-segmentation regions. The proposed method is experimentally validated on various industrial components. Comparisons with state-of-the-art methods indicate that the proposed method for feature surface extraction is feasible and capable of achieving favorable performance and facilitating automation of industrial components.

Multi-Sensor Data Fusion for Accurate Traffic Speed and Travel Time Reconstruction

This paper studies the joint reconstruction of traffic speeds and travel times by fusing sparse sensor data. Raw speed data from inductive loop detectors and floating cars as well as travel time measurements are combined using different fusion techniques. A novel fusion approach is developed, which extends existing speed reconstruction methods to integrate low-resolution travel time data. Several state-of-the-art methods and the novel approach are evaluated on their performance in reconstructing traffic speeds and travel times using various combinations of sensor data. Algorithms and sensor setups are evaluated with real loop detector, floating car and Bluetooth data collected during severe congestion on German freeway A9. Two main aspects are examined: 1) which algorithm provides the most accurate result depending on the used data and 2) which type of sensor and which combination of sensors yields highest estimation accuracy. Results show that, overall, the novel approach applied to a combination of floating-car data and loop data provides the best speed and travel time accuracy. Furthermore, a fusion of sources improves the reconstruction quality in many, but not all cases. In particular, Bluetooth data only provide a benefit for reconstruction purposes if integrated subtly.