Photogrammetric Point Cloud Skeleton Abstraction

As the first study that tackles these problem, Living Root Bridge sections that consist of a variety of branch configurations are used as testing models prior to upscaling the method to a whole bridge. The final worklow consists of: 1) initialize the point cloud’s rotation by principle component analysis (PCA); 2) voxelize the point cloud with a certain resolution; 3) process the voxel model including deleting outliers and filling the hollow trunk hole; 4) thin the voxel model to a one-voxel-thick skeleton; 5) segment branches by identifying joints.
The result is a topological skeleton model of the living root branches. The quality of the result is analyzed in terms of various model rotation, deviation and restoring capabilities. Two possible uses of the topological model are addressed and tested: shape description and growth forecast.