On generating solid models of mechanical parts through fuzzy clustering

In reverse engineering, one often needs to generate geometrical models of old mechanical parts. Manual redrafting of old products using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software is a laborious procedure. To overcome this problem, an automated procedure is proposed. The proposed approach is based on using fuzzy clustering to segment the range image of the object and then constructing a solid model using an automated procedure. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, model generation for convex planar, faceted objects is considered. A generalized version of the Adaptive Fuzzy c-Elliptotype (AFC) clustering algorithm suitable for higher dimensional data is used to identify the planar facets in noisy range images when the number of facets is unknown.