Research on error propagation of point cloud registration

In actual project, setting several stations surrounding the object is usually necessary to get the complete point cloud. For this reason, point cloud registration is very important in data process of 3D Terrestrial Laser Scanning. Its precision will affect model reconstruction directly. However, multi-station registration inevitably leads to error propagation. This paper presents a multi-station point cloud registration distortion technique. Based on registration model, the error propagation is derived and different precision between registration station by station and overall registration is analyzed through experiments. The result shows that multi-station point cloud registration distortion caused by error propagation can be effectively controlled by means of overall adjustment. In this way, the influence of registration error accumulation can be reduced to the maximum extent.