A 3D scanning system based on low-occlusion approach

In order to enhance the performance of a 3D laser scanning system, a low occlusion approach is analyzed to find the best view for scanning by considering the object position instead of the sensor position. Based on a 2-axis 3D color scanner developed by OES/ITRI, the best position (BP) of an object on the rotary table will be focused to meet the best view requirements for the low cost scanner. Since the 2-axis 3D scanner only consists of linear and rotary moving apparatuses, in general, it needs 2 or more scanning processes to capture multiple layers to register and merge to a complete 3D file. In order to optimize the scanned layers and minimize the amount of data, we propose an algorithm to effectively decrease the amount of scanned layers and to acquire best-view data in the 2-axis 3D scanner based on the proposed best-position criteria. In the experimental results, the emphasized problems of the worst case really occur when the object is set at an infeasible position. And the best-view scanning is illustrated after the object is reallocated suitably with the best position by the proposed algorithm. Hence, besides the NBV problem, the low-occlusion criteria proposed in the paper also play an important role for acquiring complete 3D data. In future, we will focus on the development of the automatic procedure to combine the NBV solution to achieve more efficient scanning for any complex 3D model.