Segmentation of range data into rigid subsets using surface patches

In this paper we consider one aspect of the problem of automatically constructing geometric models of articulated objects from multiple range images. Automatic model construction has been investigated for rigid objects, but the techniques used do not extend easily to the articulated case. The problem arises because of the need to register surface measurements taken from different viewpoints into a common reference frame. Registration algorithms generally assume that an object does not change shape from one view to the next, but when automatically building a model of an articulated object, it is necessary for the modes of articulation to be present in the example data. To avoid this problem we propose that raw surface data of articulated objects is first segmented into rigid subsets, corresponding to rigid subcomponents of the object. This allows a model of each subcomponent to be constructed using the conventional approaches and a final, articulated model to be constructed by assembling each of the subcomponent models. We describe an algorithm developed to segment range data into rigid subsets based on surface patch correspondences and present some results for the planar patch case.