Robust Detection of Non-overlapping Ellipses from Points with Applications to Circular Target Extraction in Images and Cylinder Detection in Point Clouds
| dc.contributor.author | Maalek, Reza | |
| dc.contributor.author | Lichti, Derek D | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-04-27T21:56:57Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-04-27T21:56:57Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-04-14 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Detection of non-overlapping ellipses from 2-dimensional (2D) edge points is an essential step towards solving typical photogrammetry problems pertaining to feature detection, calibration, and registration of optical instruments. For instance, circular and spherical black and white calibration and registration targets are represented as ellipses in images. Furthermore, the intersection of a cut plane with cylindrical point clouds generates 2D points following elliptic patterns. To this end, this study proposes a collection of new methods for the automatic and robust detection of non-overlapping ellipses from 2D points. These methods will first be applied to detect circular and spherical targets in images and, second, to detect cylinders in 3D point clouds. The method utilizes the Euclidian ellipticity and a new systematic and generalizable threshold to decide if a set of connected points follow an elliptic pattern. When connected points include outliers, the newly proposed robust Monte Carlo-based ellipse fitting method will be deployed. This method includes three new developments: (i) selecting initial subsamples using a bucketing strategy based on the polar angle of the points; (ii) detecting inlier points by reducing the robust ellipse fitting to a robust circle fitting problem; and (iii) choosing the best inlier set amongst all subsamples using adaptive, systematic, and generalizable selection criteria. A new process is presented to extract cylinders from a point cloud by detecting non-overlapping ellipses from the points projected onto an intersecting cut plane. The proposed methods were compared to established state-of-the-art methods, using simulated and real-world datasets, through the design of four sets of original experiments. The experiments include (i) comparisons of robust ellipse fitting; (ii) sensitivity analysis of the ellipse validation criteria; (iii) comparison of non-overlapping ellipse detection; and (iv) detection of pipes from terrestrial laser scanner point clouds. It was found that the proposed robust ellipse detection was superior to four reliable robust methods, including the popular least median of squares, in both simulated and real-world datasets. The proposed process for detecting non-overlapping ellipses achieved F-measure of 99.3% on real images, compared to 42.4%, 65.6%, and 59.2%, obtained using the methods of Fornaciari, Patraucean, and Panagiotakis, respectively. The proposed cylinder extraction method identified all detectable mechanical pipes in two real-world point clouds collected in laboratory and industrial construction site conditions. The results of this investigation show promise for the application of the proposed methods for automatic extraction of circular targets from images and pipes from point clouds. | |
| dc.description.grantingagency | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2021.04.010 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.grantnumber | 542980 - 19 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113322 | |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier | en_US |
| dc.publisher.department | Geomatics Engineering | en_US |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Schulich School of Engineering | en_US |
| dc.publisher.hasversion | acceptedVersion | en_US |
| dc.publisher.policy | https://www.elsevier.com/journals/isprs-journal-of-photogrammetry-and-remote-sensing/0924-2716/open-access-options | en_US |
| dc.rights | Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. | en_US |
| dc.title | Robust Detection of Non-overlapping Ellipses from Points with Applications to Circular Target Extraction in Images and Cylinder Detection in Point Clouds | en_US |
| dc.type | journal article | en_US |
| ucalgary.item.requestcopy | true | en_US |
| ucalgary.scholar.level | Faculty | en_US |