An Omnidirectional Imaging System for the Reverse Engineering of Industrial Facilities

Digital photogrammetry continues to evolve from specialist applications such as topographic mapping and is rapidly emerging as a highly accessible method for capturing geometric data. A range of general-purpose softcopy photogrammetric systems are now widely available to end users who are thus able to exploit images captured from an increasing number of high-resolution non-metric digital cameras. In parallel with these developments an increasing diversity of range-imaging systems are being developed to facilitate the rapid acquisition of geometric data. To date these devices do not offer the resolution, portability or speed afforded by digital cameras, however this paper anticipates the development of hybrid range and intensity imaging systems. Through the extension of such systems to facilitate the acquisition of omnidirectional imagery the paper seeks to demonstrate the utility of such data in the rapid documentation of complex objects. The paper will demonstrate the development and exploitation of omnidirectional digital photogrammetry and range imaging systems to enable the creation and exploitation of massive image databases of large industrial objects such as process-plants, offshore oil platforms or power stations. Furthermore the paper will demonstrate the extent to which computer vision based analyses of such databases can, in turn, permit precise yet cost-effective documentation of a wide range of industrial facilities.