Scale selection for classification of point-sampled 3D surfaces

Three-dimensional ladar data are commonly used to perform scene understanding for outdoor mobile robots, specifically in natural terrain. One effective method is to classify points using features based on local point cloud distribution into surfaces, linear structures or clutter volumes. But the local features are computed using 3D points within a support-volume. Local and global point density variations and the presence of multiple manifolds make the problem of selecting the size of this support volume, or scale, challenging. In this paper, we adopt an approach inspired by recent developments in computational geometry (Mitra et al., 2005) and investigate the problem of automatic data-driven scale selection to improve point cloud classification. The approach is validated with results using data from different sensors in various environments classified into different terrain types (vegetation, solid surface and linear structure).