Reconstructing 3D CAD Models for simulation using imaging-based reverse engineering

The purpose of this research is to investigate imaging-based methods to reconstruct 3D CAD models of real-world objects. The methodology uses structured lighting technologies such as coded-pattern projection and laser-based triangulation to sample 3D points on the surfaces of objects and then to reconstruct these surfaces from the dense point samples. This reverse engineering (RE) research presents reconstruction results for a military tire that is important to tire-soil simulations. The limitations of this approach are the current level of accuracy that imaging-based systems offer relative to more traditional CMM modeling systems. The benefit however is the potential for denser point samples and increased scanning speeds of objects, and with time, the imaging technologies should continue to improve to compete with CMM accuracy. This approach to RE should lead to high fidelity models of manufactured and prototyped components for comparison to the original CAD models and for simulation analysis. We focus this paper on the data collection and view registration problems within the RE pipeline.