An image-based fast three-dimensional modelling method for virtual manufacturing

Abstract

This paper focuses on a quick way to extract geometric information from an object and transfer the information into a virtual reality (VR) system. Considering the problems associated with the construction of VR environments, different three-dimensional modelling methods are analysed in this paper, and the authors report an effective methodology to construct virtual manufacturing environments. A three-dimensional surface reconstruction system, based on image analysis, forms a new approach to data acquisition and promises to be a competitive technique for VR applications. This three-dimensional surface reconstruction system integrates the binocular stereo principle and the shape from shading technique. Experimental results are encouraging and the performance of the system has been evaluated by simulation procedures.

Keywords

virtual manufacturing CAD reverse engineering

References

Kim

Sonthi

Gadh

Virtual engineering environment applications: An overview. In Design for Manufacturability, 1994, De-Vol. 67, pp. 1–11 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York).

Lefort

Kesavadas

Interactive virtual factory of a shopfloor using single cluster analysis. In Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Leuven, Belgium, 1998, pp. 266–271.

Chuter

Jernigan

S. R.

Barber

K. S.

A virtual environment simulator for reactive manufacturing schedules. In Proceedings of Conference on VR in Manufacturing Research and Education, Chicago, 7–8 October 1996 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York).

Mourant

R. R.

Wilson

B. H.

Qiu

A virtual environment for training overhead crane operators. In Proceedings of Conference on VR in Manufacturing Research and Education, Chicago, 7–8 October 1996 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York).

Kraftcheck

Dani

Gadh

State of the art in virtual design and manufacturing. VR News, 1997, 6(4), 16–22.

Chu

C. P.

Dani

T. H.

Gadh

Multi-sensory user interface for a virtual-reality-based computer-aided design system. Computer-Aided Des., 1997, 29(8), 709–725.

Gupta

Whitney

Aelzert

Prototyping and design for assembly analysis using multimodal virtual environments. Computer-Aided Des., 1997, 29(8), 585–597.

Varady

Martin

R. R.

Cox

Reverse engineering of geometric modelsan introduction. Computer-Aided Des., 1997, 29(4), 255–267.

Zalzala

A. M. S.

Morris

A. S.

Neural Networks for Robotic Control, 1996 (Ellis Horwood Limited, Chichester).

10.

Horn

B. K. P.

Brooks

M. J.

Shape from Shading, 1989 (MIT Press, London).

11.

Zhang

Deriche

Faugeras

A robust technique for matching two uncalibrated images through the recovery of the unknown epipolar geometry, 1994. http://www.inriafr/rapports/sophia/RR-2273.html.

12.

Blake

Zisserman

Knowles

Surface descriptions from stereo and shading. Image Vision Comput., 1985, 3, 183–191.

13.

Kimmel

Bruckstein

A. M.

Tracking level sets by level set: A method for solving the shape from shading problem. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, July 1995, 62(2), 47–58.

14.

Peng

Loftus

A new approach to reverse engineering based on vision information. Int. J. Mach. Tools Mf., 1998, 38(8), 881–899.

15.

Tsai

R. Y.

A versatile camera calibration technique for high-accuracy 3D machine vision metrology using off-the-shelf TV cameras and lenses. IEEE Trans., J. Robotics Automn, 1987, RA-3(4), 323–344.

16.

Kanade

Okutomi

A stereo matching algorithm with an adaptive window: Theory and experiment. In Proceedings of the 1991 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Sacramento, California, 1991, pp. 1088–1094.

17.

Myler

H. R.

Weeks

A. R.

The Pocket Handbook of Image Processing Algorithms in C, 1993 (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey).