Reverse engineering of complex surfaces based on a new hierarchical segmentation method

This paper presents a new method capable of segmenting range images into a set of Bezier surface patches directly compatible with most CAD systems. The algorithm is divided into four parts. First, an initial partition of the data set into regions, following a third-order Bezier model, is performed using a robust fitting algorithm constrained by the position of depth and orientation discontinuities. Second, an optimal region growing based on a new Bayesian decision criteria is computed. Third, generalization to a higher-order surface model is performed based on a statistical decision method. Fourth, at the final resolution, an approximation of the surface boundary is computed using a two-dimensional B-spline. The algorithm is fully automatic and does not require adhoc parameter adjustment. Experimental results are presented.