Reconstruction of Three Dimensional Models of Environments with a Mobile Robot

In this paper a method is presented for the three-dimensional reconstruction of environment, using a mobile platform equipped with an onboard laser scanner (for the scene geometry acquisition), and a webcam (for the texture registration). The used algorithm is based on calculating the 3D planes in the scene upon the measured 3D points, through the normal calculation, the projection of the points onto the found planes, and the 2D triangulation of the projected points. This way, the plane regions and the corresponding contours in the model are obtained. Concerning the texture, images are assigned to the plane regions, and the complete scene is built through a stitching algorithm. Images and 3D points are projected onto a sphere, in order the information loss on free form objects, and the distortion caused by points improperly assigned to planes, to be reduced.