3D shape matching and registration : a probabilistic perspective

Dense correspondence is a key area in computer vision and medical image analysis. It has applications in registration and shape analysis. In this thesis, we develop a technique to recover dense correspondences between the surfaces of neuroanatomical objects over heterogeneous populations of individuals. We recover dense correspondences based on 3D shape matching. In this thesis, the 3D shape matching problem is formulated under the framework of Markov Random Fields (MRFs). We represent the surfaces of neuroanatomical objects as genus zero voxel-based meshes. The surface meshes are projected into a Markov random field space. The projection carries both geometric and topological information in terms of Gaussian curvature and mesh neighbourhood from the original space to the random field space. Gaussian curvature is projected to the nodes of the MRF, and the mesh neighbourhood structure is projected to the edges. 3D shape matching between two surface meshes is then performed by solving an energy function minimisation problem formulated with MRFs. The outcome of the 3D shape matching is dense point-to-point correspondences. However, the minimisation of the energy function is NP hard. In this thesis, we use belief propagation to perform the probabilistic inference for 3D shape matching. A sparse update loopy belief propagation algorithm adapted to the 3D shape matching is proposed to obtain an approximate global solution for the 3D shape matching problem. The sparse update loopy belief propagation algorithm demonstrates significant efficiency gain compared to standard belief propagation. The computational complexity and convergence property analysis for the sparse update loopy belief propagation algorithm are also conducted in the thesis. We also investigate randomised algorithms to minimise the energy function. In order to enhance the shape matching rate and increase the inlier support set, we propose a novel clamping technique. The clamping technique is realized by combining the loopy belief propagation message updating rule with the feedback from 3D rigid body registration. By using this clamping technique, the correct shape matching rate is increased significantly. Finally, we investigate 3D shape registration techniques based on the 3D shape matching result. Based on the point-to-point dense correspondences obtained from the 3D shape matching, a three-point based transformation estimation technique is combined with the RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm to obtain the inlier support set. The global registration approach is purely dependent on point-wise correspondences between two meshed surfaces. It has the advantage that the need for orientation initialisation is eliminated and that all shapes of spherical topology. The comparison of our MRF based 3D registration approach with a state-of-the-art registration algorithm, the first order ellipsoid template, is conducted in the experiments. These show dense correspondence for pairs of hippocampi from two different data sets, each of around 20 60+ year old healthy individuals

HybridFusion: LiDAR and Vision Cross-Source Point Cloud Fusion

Recently, cross-source point cloud registration from different sensors has become a significant research focus. However, traditional methods confront challenges due to the varying density and structure of cross-source point clouds. In order to solve these problems, we propose a cross-source point cloud fusion algorithm called HybridFusion. It can register cross-source dense point clouds from different viewing angle in outdoor large scenes. The entire registration process is a coarse-to-fine procedure. First, the point cloud is divided into small patches, and a matching patch set is selected based on global descriptors and spatial distribution, which constitutes the coarse matching process. To achieve fine matching, 2D registration is performed by extracting 2D boundary points from patches, followed by 3D adjustment. Finally, the results of multiple patch pose estimates are clustered and fused to determine the final pose. The proposed approach is evaluated comprehensively through qualitative and quantitative experiments. In order to compare the robustness of cross-source point cloud registration, the proposed method and generalized iterative closest point method are compared. Furthermore, a metric for describing the degree of point cloud filling is proposed. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance in cross-source point cloud registration

Probabilistic Camera-to-Kinematic Model Calibration for Long-Reach Robotic Manipulators in Unknown Environments

In this paper, we present a methodology for extrinsic calibration of a camera attached to a long-reach manipulator in an unknown environment. The methodology comprises coarse frame alignment and fine matching based on probabilistic point set registration. The coarse frame alignment is based on the known initial pose and assists in the fine matching step, which is based on robust generalized point set registration that utilizes position and orientation data. Comparison with other methods utilizing only position data is provided. The first 6 DOF point set is obtained using a SLAM algorithm running on a camera attached near the tip of a manipulator, whereas the second point set is obtained using a kinematic model and joint encoders. Real- time experiments and a use case are presented. The results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is suited for the application, and that it can be useful in operations requiring precise visual measurements obtained near the tip of the manipulator.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Computational Analysis of Distance Operators for the Iterative Closest Point Algorithm

The Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm is currently one of the most popular methods for rigid registration so that it has become the standard in the Robotics and Computer Vision communities. Many applications take advantage of it to align 2D/3D surfaces due to its popularity and simplicity. Nevertheless, some of its phases present a high computational cost thus rendering impossible some of its applications. In this work, it is proposed an efficient approach for the matching phase of the Iterative Closest Point algorithm. This stage is the main bottleneck of that method so that any efficiency improvement has a great positive impact on the performance of the algorithm. The proposal consists in using low computational cost point-to-point distance metrics instead of classic Euclidean one. The candidates analysed are the Chebyshev and Manhattan distance metrics due to their simpler formulation. The experiments carried out have validated the performance, robustness and quality of the proposal. Different experimental cases and configurations have been set up including a heterogeneous set of 3D figures, several scenarios with partial data and random noise. The results prove that an average speed up of 14% can be obtained while preserving the convergence properties of the algorithm and the quality of the final results

Automated Point Cloud Correspondence Detection for Underwater Mapping Using AUVs

An algorithm for automating correspondence detection between point clouds composed of multibeam sonar data is presented. This allows accurate initialization for point cloud alignment techniques even in cases where accurate inertial navigation is not available, such as iceberg profiling or vehicles with low-grade inertial navigation systems. Techniques from computer vision literature are used to extract, label, and match keypoints between "pseudo-images" generated from these point clouds. Image matches are refined using RANSAC and information about the vehicle trajectory. The resulting correspondences can be used to initialize an iterative closest point (ICP) registration algorithm to estimate accumulated navigation error and aid in the creation of accurate, self-consistent maps. The results presented use multibeam sonar data obtained from multiple overlapping passes of an underwater canyon in Monterey Bay, California. Using strict matching criteria, the method detects 23 between-swath correspondence events in a set of 155 pseudo-images with zero false positives. Using less conservative matching criteria doubles the number of matches but introduces several false positive matches as well. Heuristics based on known vehicle trajectory information are used to eliminate these

Break and Splice: A Statistical Method for Non-Rigid Point Cloud Registration

3D object matching and registration on point clouds are widely used in computer vision. However, most existing point cloud registration methods have limitations in handling non-rigid point sets or topology changes (e.g. connections and separations). As a result, critical characteristics such as large inter-frame motions of the point clouds may not be accurately captured. This paper proposes a statistical algorithm for non-rigid point sets registration, addressing the challenge of handling topology changes without the need to estimate correspondence. The algorithm uses a novel Break and Splice framework to treat the non-rigid registration challenges as a reproduction process and a Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Model (DPGMM) to cluster a pair of point sets. Labels are assigned to the source point set with an iterative classification procedure, and the source is registered to the target with the same labels using the Bayesian Coherent Point Drift (BCPD) method. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves lower registration errors and efficiently registers point sets undergoing topology changes and large inter-frame motions. The proposed approach is evaluated on several data sets using various qualitative and quantitative metrics. The results demonstrate that the Break and Splice framework outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving an average error reduction of about 60% and a registration time reduction of about 57.8%

RoCNet: 3D Robust Registration of Point-Clouds using Deep Learning

This paper introduces a new method for 3D point cloud registration based on deep learning. The architecture is composed of three distinct blocs: (i) an encoder composed of a convolutional graph-based descriptor that encodes the immediate neighbourhood of each point and an attention mechanism that encodes the variations of the surface normals. Such descriptors are refined by highlighting attention between the points of the same set and then between the points of the two sets. (ii) a matching process that estimates a matrix of correspondences using the Sinkhorn algorithm. (iii) Finally, the rigid transformation between the two point clouds is calculated by RANSAC using the Kc best scores from the correspondence matrix. We conduct experiments on the ModelNet40 dataset, and our proposed architecture shows very promising results, outperforming state-of-the-art methods in most of the simulated configurations, including partial overlap and data augmentation with Gaussian noise.Comment: 8 page

Multimodal Three Dimensional Scene Reconstruction, The Gaussian Fields Framework

The focus of this research is on building 3D representations of real world scenes and objects using different imaging sensors. Primarily range acquisition devices (such as laser scanners and stereo systems) that allow the recovery of 3D geometry, and multi-spectral image sequences including visual and thermal IR images that provide additional scene characteristics. The crucial technical challenge that we addressed is the automatic point-sets registration task. In this context our main contribution is the development of an optimization-based method at the core of which lies a unified criterion that solves simultaneously for the dense point correspondence and transformation recovery problems. The new criterion has a straightforward expression in terms of the datasets and the alignment parameters and was used primarily for 3D rigid registration of point-sets. However it proved also useful for feature-based multimodal image alignment. We derived our method from simple Boolean matching principles by approximation and relaxation. One of the main advantages of the proposed approach, as compared to the widely used class of Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithms, is convexity in the neighborhood of the registration parameters and continuous differentiability, allowing for the use of standard gradient-based optimization techniques. Physically the criterion is interpreted in terms of a Gaussian Force Field exerted by one point-set on the other. Such formulation proved useful for controlling and increasing the region of convergence, and hence allowing for more autonomy in correspondence tasks. Furthermore, the criterion can be computed with linear complexity using recently developed Fast Gauss Transform numerical techniques. In addition, we also introduced a new local feature descriptor that was derived from visual saliency principles and which enhanced significantly the performance of the registration algorithm. The resulting technique was subjected to a thorough experimental analysis that highlighted its strength and showed its limitations. Our current applications are in the field of 3D modeling for inspection, surveillance, and biometrics. However, since this matching framework can be applied to any type of data, that can be represented as N-dimensional point-sets, the scope of the method is shown to reach many more pattern analysis applications