A Hardware Based 3D Room Scanner

Abstract

This thesis describes a project to create a hardware based 3D interior scanner. This was based on a previous project that created a scanner optimised for interior conditions, using structured light triangulation. The original project referred to as the Mark-I scanner, performed its control and processing on a PC and the primary goal of this project was to re-implement this system using hardware, making the scanner more portable and simpler to use. The Mark-I system required a specialised camera which had an unusually high noise associated with it, so a secondary goal was to investigate whether this camera could be replaced with a superior model or this noise corrected. A Mark-II scanner system was created using FPGA processing and control implemented in the VHDL language. This read from a CMOS camera, controlled the system's motor and laser, generated 3D points and communicated with users. A suitable camera was not found and the Mark-I scanners camera was found to have been damaged and become unusable, so a simulation environment was constructed that simulated the operation of the scanner, created 3D images for it to process, and tested its results. Chapter 1 of this thesis outlines the goals of this pro ject and describes the Mark-I system. Chapter 2 describes the theory and properties of the Mark-I system, and chapter 3 describes the work undertaken to replace the scanner's sensor. Chapter 4 describes the system created to interface to CMOS sensors, and chapter 5 outlines the theory involved in calculating 3D points using structured light triangulation. The final hardware scanner, and the simulation system used to test it, are then described in chapter 6.