3-D object description and recognition

Summary form only given. Description and recognition of three-dimensional objects is a key technology for robotics and factory automation. Dense range data are used as the input to the system. The range data can be obtained by one of several range finders that the authors have designed or purchased. In this system, each object is represented by its visible surface from a small number of distinct views (typically four). The surface is represented as a structured graph. A complex surface is segmented into simple surfaces at physically significant boundaries such as jumps and folds. The graph description consists of these patterns as nodes and relations between them as links. The segmentation is done by a sophisticated process that uses surface curvature properties. Recognition is by graph matching. The system is able to handle rather complex scenes