A next-best-view method with self-termination in active modeling of 3D objects

The objective of view planning in a visual sensing system is to make task-directed decisions for optimal sensing pose selection. The primary focus of the research described in this paper is to propose a new method for creating a complete model of free-form surface object from multiple range images acquired by a scan sensor at different space poses. Using the view sphere to limit the number of possible sensor positions, the candidates for the next-best-view (NBV) position are easily determined by detecting and measuring occlusions to the camera's view in an image. Ultimately, the candidate which obtains maximum the known partial modeling boundary integral value of the vector fields is selected as the next-best-view position. We also present a self-termination criterion for judging the completion condition in the measurement and reconstruction process. The termination condition is derived based on changes in the volume computed from two successive viewpoints. The experimental results show that the method is effective in practical implementation. © 2006 IEEE.