Large stack-yard three-dimensional measurement based on videogrammetry and projected-contour scanning

Fast and reliable three-dimensional (3-D) measurement of large stack yards is an important job in bulk load-and-unload operations and logistics management. Traditional noncontacting methods, such as LiDAR and photogrammetry, witness difficulties of complex and irregular shape, single texture and weak reflectivity, and so on. In this paper, we propose a videogrammetry and projected-contour scanning method. The surface of a stack yard can be scanned easily by a laser-line projector, and its 3-D shape can be reconstructed automatically by stereo cameras. There are two main technical contributions of this method: 1. corresponding-point matching in stereo imagery based on image gradient and epipolar line; and 2. single projected-contour extraction under constraint of homography and RANSAC (random sampling consensus). The proposed method has been tested by 3-D-reconstruction experiments of sand tables in indoor and outdoor conditions, which showed that about five contours were reconstructed per second on average, and moving-distance error of a standard slab was less than 0.4 mm in the worst direction of the videogrammetric system. In conclusion, the proposed method is effective for 3-D shape measurement of stack yards in a fast, reliable and accurate way.