A Multi‐Resolution Hybrid Approach for Building Model Reconstruction from Lidar Data

Abstract In this paper, a multi‐resolution hybrid approach is proposed for the reconstruction of building models from point clouds of lidar data. The detection of the main roof planes is obtained through a polyhedral approach, whereas the models of appended parts, in this case the dormers, are reconstructed by adopting a model‐driven approach. Clustering of the roof points in a multi‐resolution space is based on the fuzzy c‐mean in the polyhedral section of this hybrid approach. A weighted plane algorithm is developed in order to determine the planes of each cluster. The verification of planes between multi‐resolution spaces adopts a method based on a least squares support vector machine that, in the model‐driven section, is applied for detecting types of projecting structures. A method is then developed to determine the dormer models’ parameters. Finally, the detection of boundary roof lines is obtained through a customised fuzzy Hough transform. The paper outlines the concept of the algorithms and the processing chain, and illustrates the results obtained by applying the technique to buildings of different complexities.