Scanning system for three-dimensional objects

• US 20060188143A1
• Filed: 11/21/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Strassenburg-Kleciak, Marek
• Granted Patent: US 7,689,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/00 Surveying instruments or accessories not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/002 Active optical surveying means optical plumbing G01C15/105
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/88 Lidar systems specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/41 Differential correction, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/04 Texture mapping
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/10 Constructive solid geometry [CSG] using solid primitives, e.g. cylinders, cubes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/30 Determination of transform parameters for the alignment of images, i.e. image registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 from stereo images

Abstract

A scanning system scans a surface of a three-dimensional object from a first position and a second position. Using common alignment at these positions, a first scanning sample and a second scanning sample are generated. The first and second scanning samples include point clouds having data points representing positions of the scanned surfaces. The first scanning sample and the second scanning sample are oriented relative to each other based on the common alignment of the scan positions.

Claims

1. A method for scanning a three-dimensional object, comprising:

scanning a surface of a three-dimensional object from a first scanning position;

scanning the surface from a second scanning position;

generating a first scanning sample including a first point cloud and a second scanning sample including a second point cloud where the first point cloud has data points that represent positions corresponding to the scanned surface at the first scanning position and the second point cloud has data points that represent positions corresponding to the scanned surface at the second scanning position;

determining coordinates of the first scanning position and the second scanning position with a satellite based positioning system; and

registering the first scanning sample and the second scanning sample based on the first scanning position and the second scanning position where the first scanning sample and the second scanning sample are oriented with respect to each other according to orientation of the surface.

2. The method of claim 1, where the act of determining comprises correcting inaccuracies of the satellite based positioning system.

3. The method of claim 1, where the act of determining comprises determining coordinates of the first and the second scanning positions with a Differential Global Positioning System.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the first scanning position as a reference point of the first point cloud of the first scanning sample.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising selecting the second scanning position as a reference point of the second point cloud of the second scanning sample.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising aligning the first scanning position and the second scanning position in a particular orientation during the scanning.

7. The method of claim 6, where the aligning comprises horizontally aligning the first scanning position and the second scanning position during the scanning.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising measuring a scanning direction at the first and the second scanning positions.

9. The method of claim 8, where the registering comprises rotating the first scanning sample and the second scanning sample based on the scanning direction.

10. The method of claim 1, where the registering comprises applying a translational or rotational operation to the first point cloud and the second point cloud.

11. The method of claim 1, where the scanning comprises scanning the surface of the three-dimensional object with a laser beam, a radio beam, a microwave beam, an infrared beam or an ultrasonic beam.

12. The method of claim 1, where the scanning comprises scanning the surface of the three-dimensional object with a laser pulse scanner.

13. The method of claim 1, where the scanning comprises scanning the surface of the three-dimensional object with one of a time-of-flight laser scanner and a phase-shift laser scanner.

14. A scanning system, comprising:

a scanner that moves a scanning beam across a surface of a three-dimensional object, the scanner having a reduced degree of freedom;

a detector that detects a reflected scanning beam; and

a receiver for use with a satellite based positioning system that determines the position of the scanning system, wherein inaccuracies of the positioning system are configured to be corrected with an error signal.

15. The scanning system of claim 14, where the scanner is aligned in a particular orientation for multiple scans.

16. The scanning system of claim 14, where the scanner is horizontally aligned at multiple scanning positions.

17. The scanning system of claim 14, further comprising a sensor that detects horizontal adjustment, the horizontal adjustment configured to remain unchanged for multiple scans.

18. The scanning system of claim 14, where the satellite based positioning system comprises a Differential Global Positioning System.

19. The scanning system of claim 14, further comprising a data generator that generates point clouds corresponding to the scanned surface of the three-dimensional object.

20. The scanning system of claim 14, further comprising a processing unit that formats a plurality of scanning samples including point clouds where the point clouds represent positions on the surface of the three-dimensional object.

21. The scanning system of claim 20, further comprising a storage unit for storing the plurality of scanning samples.

22. The scanning system of claim 20, further comprising a register that registers different point clouds contained in different scanning samples based on the position of the scanning system.

23. The scanning system of claim 14, where the scanning beam comprises one of a laser beam, a radio beam, a microwave beam, an infrared beam and an ultrasonic beam.

24. The scanning system of claim 14, further comprising a scanning beam emitter configured to emit a pulsed scanning beam.

25. The scanning system of claim 14, further comprising a scanning beam emitter configured to emit a laser beam as a scanning beam.

26. The scanning system of claim 14, where the detector is configured to detect a last pulse reflection of the scanning beam.

27. The scanning system of claim 14, where the scanner is configured to operate as one of a time-of-flight laser scanner and a phase-shift laser scanner.

28. The scanning system of claim 14, where the detector comprises a photodiode receiver.

29. The scanning system of claim 14, further comprising a time measuring unit that determines a time interval between a transmitted signal and a received signal at the scanning system.

30. The scanning system of claim 14, where the scanner is configured to be integrated into a theodolite.

31. The scanning system of claim 14, where the scanner is horizontally adjusted with the Differential Global Positioning System receiver and a horizontal scanning position of the scanner remains unchanged during scanning operation at different scanning places.

32. The scanning system of claim 31, further comprising a processing unit that performs registration of a plurality of scanning samples of the three-dimensional object from the scanner, the processing unit determining each rotation angle for the plurality of scanning samples.

33. The scanning system of claim 32, where each rotation angle corresponds to a scanning position of the scanner and the scanning position is obtained with the satellite based positioning system.

34. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions recorded thereon for scanning a three-dimensional object, the computer program product comprising:

means for scanning a surface of a three-dimensional object from a first scanning position and a second scanning position;

means for generating a first scanning sample including a first point cloud and a second scanning sample including a second point cloud where the first point cloud has data points that represent positions corresponding to the scanned surface at the first scanning position and the second point cloud has data points that represent positions corresponding to the scanned surface at the second scanning position;

means for determining coordinates of the first scanning position and the second scanning position with a satellite based positioning system; and

means for registering the first scanning sample and the second scanning sample based on the first scanning position and the second scanning position where the first scanning sample and the second scanning sample are oriented with respect to each other according to orientation of the surface.