Register fragments

Once the fragments of the scene are created, the next step is to align them in a global space.

Input arguments

This script runs with python run_system.py [config] --register. In [config], ["path_dataset"] should have subfolders fragments which stores fragments in .ply files and a pose graph in a .json file.

The main function runs make_posegraph_for_scene and optimize_posegraph_for_scene. The first function performs pairwise registration. The second function performs multiway registration.

Preprocess point cloud

    pcd_down.estimate_normals(
            source, target, source_fpfh, target_fpfh,
            o3d.pipelines.registration.FastGlobalRegistrationOption(
                maximum_correspondence_distance=distance_threshold))
    if config["global_registration"] == "ransac":
        # Fallback to preset parameters that works better
        result = o3d.pipelines.registration.registration_ransac_based_on_feature_matching(
            source, target, source_fpfh, target_fpfh, False, distance_threshold,
            o3d.pipelines.registration.TransformationEstimationPointToPoint(
                False), 4,
            [
                o3d.pipelines.registration.
                CorrespondenceCheckerBasedOnEdgeLength(0.9),
                o3d.pipelines.registration.CorrespondenceCheckerBasedOnDistance(

This function downsamples a point cloud to make it sparser and regularly distributed. Normals and FPFH feature are precomputed. See Voxel downsampling, Vertex normal estimation, and Extract geometric feature for more details.

Compute initial registration

    pcd_down.estimate_normals(
                                                  config)
        if not success:
            print("No reasonable solution. Skip this pair")
            return (False, np.identity(4), np.zeros((6, 6)))
    print(transformation)

    if config["debug_mode"]:
        draw_registration_result(source_down, target_down, transformation)
    return (True, transformation, information)


def update_posegraph_for_scene(s, t, transformation, information, odometry,
                               pose_graph):
    if t == s + 1:  # odometry case
        odometry = np.dot(transformation, odometry)
        odometry_inv = np.linalg.inv(odometry)
        pose_graph.nodes.append(
            o3d.pipelines.registration.PoseGraphNode(odometry_inv))
        pose_graph.edges.append(
            o3d.pipelines.registration.PoseGraphEdge(s,
                                                     t,
                                                     transformation,
                                                     information,
                                                     uncertain=False))
    else:  # loop closure case
        pose_graph.edges.append(
            o3d.pipelines.registration.PoseGraphEdge(s,
                                                     t,
                                                     transformation,

This function computes a rough alignment between two fragments. If the fragments are neighboring fragments, the rough alignment is determined by an aggregating RGBD odometry obtained from Make fragments. Otherwise, register_point_cloud_fpfh is called to perform global registration. Note that global registration is less reliable according to [Choi2015].

Pairwise global registration

    pcd_down.estimate_normals(
                    distance_threshold)
            ],
            o3d.pipelines.registration.RANSACConvergenceCriteria(
                1000000, 0.999))
    if (result.transformation.trace() == 4.0):
        return (False, np.identity(4), np.zeros((6, 6)))
    information = o3d.pipelines.registration.get_information_matrix_from_point_clouds(
        source, target, distance_threshold, result.transformation)
    if information[5, 5] / min(len(source.points), len(target.points)) < 0.3:
        return (False, np.identity(4), np.zeros((6, 6)))
    return (True, result.transformation, information)


def compute_initial_registration(s, t, source_down, target_down, source_fpfh,
                                 target_fpfh, path_dataset, config):

    if t == s + 1:  # odometry case
        print("Using RGBD odometry")
        pose_graph_frag = o3d.io.read_pose_graph(
            join(path_dataset,
                 config["template_fragment_posegraph_optimized"] % s))
        n_nodes = len(pose_graph_frag.nodes)
        transformation_init = np.linalg.inv(pose_graph_frag.nodes[n_nodes -
                                                                  1].pose)
        (transformation, information) = \
                multiscale_icp(source_down, target_down,
                [config["voxel_size"]], [50], config, transformation_init)
    else:  # loop closure case
        (success, transformation,
         information) = register_point_cloud_fpfh(source_down, target_down,
                                                  source_fpfh, target_fpfh,

This function uses RANSAC or Fast global registration for pairwise global registration.

Multiway registration

    pcd_down.estimate_normals(
                                                     information,
                                                     uncertain=True))
    return (odometry, pose_graph)


def register_point_cloud_pair(ply_file_names, s, t, config):
    print("reading %s ..." % ply_file_names[s])
    source = o3d.io.read_point_cloud(ply_file_names[s])
    print("reading %s ..." % ply_file_names[t])
    target = o3d.io.read_point_cloud(ply_file_names[t])
    (source_down, source_fpfh) = preprocess_point_cloud(source, config)
    (target_down, target_fpfh) = preprocess_point_cloud(target, config)
    (success, transformation, information) = \
            compute_initial_registration(
            s, t, source_down, target_down,
            source_fpfh, target_fpfh, config["path_dataset"], config)
    if t != s + 1 and not success:
        return (False, np.identity(4), np.identity(6))
    if config["debug_mode"]:
        print(transformation)
        print(information)
    return (True, transformation, information)

This script uses the technique demonstrated in Multiway registration. The function update_posegraph_for_scene builds a pose graph for multiway registration of all fragments. Each graph node represents a fragment and its pose which transforms the geometry to the global space.

Once a pose graph is built, the function optimize_posegraph_for_scene is called for multiway registration.

    pose_graph = o3d.io.read_pose_graph(pose_graph_name)

Main registration loop

The function make_posegraph_for_scene below calls all the functions introduced above. The main workflow is: pairwise global registration -> multiway registration.

    pcd_down.estimate_normals(
            register_point_cloud_pair)(ply_file_names, matching_results[r].s,
                                       matching_results[r].t, config)
                                              for r in matching_results)
        for i, r in enumerate(matching_results):
            matching_results[r].success = results[i][0]
            matching_results[r].transformation = results[i][1]
            matching_results[r].information = results[i][2]
    else:
        for r in matching_results:
            (matching_results[r].success, matching_results[r].transformation,
                    matching_results[r].information) = \
                    register_point_cloud_pair(ply_file_names,
                    matching_results[r].s, matching_results[r].t, config)

    for r in matching_results:
        if matching_results[r].success:
            (odometry, pose_graph) = update_posegraph_for_scene(
                matching_results[r].s, matching_results[r].t,
                matching_results[r].transformation,
                matching_results[r].information, odometry, pose_graph)
    o3d.io.write_pose_graph(
        join(config["path_dataset"], config["template_global_posegraph"]),
        pose_graph)


def run(config):
    print("register fragments.")
    o3d.utility.set_verbosity_level(o3d.utility.VerbosityLevel.Debug)
    ply_file_names = get_file_list(
        join(config["path_dataset"], config["folder_fragment"]), ".ply")
    make_clean_folder(join(config["path_dataset"], config["folder_scene"]))
    make_posegraph_for_scene(ply_file_names, config)
    optimize_posegraph_for_scene(config["path_dataset"], config)

Results

The pose graph optimization outputs the following messages:

[GlobalOptimizationLM] Optimizing PoseGraph having 14 nodes and 42 edges.
Line process weight : 55.885667
[Initial     ] residual : 7.791139e+04, lambda : 1.205976e+00
[Iteration 00] residual : 6.094275e+02, valid edges : 22, time : 0.001 sec.
[Iteration 01] residual : 4.526879e+02, valid edges : 22, time : 0.000 sec.
[Iteration 02] residual : 4.515039e+02, valid edges : 22, time : 0.000 sec.
[Iteration 03] residual : 4.514832e+02, valid edges : 22, time : 0.000 sec.
[Iteration 04] residual : 4.514825e+02, valid edges : 22, time : 0.000 sec.
Current_residual - new_residual < 1.000000e-06 * current_residual
[GlobalOptimizationLM] total time : 0.003 sec.
[GlobalOptimizationLM] Optimizing PoseGraph having 14 nodes and 35 edges.
Line process weight : 60.762800
[Initial     ] residual : 6.336097e+01, lambda : 1.324043e+00
[Iteration 00] residual : 6.334147e+01, valid edges : 22, time : 0.000 sec.
[Iteration 01] residual : 6.334138e+01, valid edges : 22, time : 0.000 sec.
Current_residual - new_residual < 1.000000e-06 * current_residual
[GlobalOptimizationLM] total time : 0.001 sec.
CompensateReferencePoseGraphNode : reference : 0

There are 14 fragments and 52 valid matching pairs among the fragments. After 23 iterations, 11 edges are detected to be false positives. After they are pruned, pose graph optimization runs again to achieve tight alignment.