This thesis is concerned with three-dimensional scan registration, in particular of underground mine tunnels. Registration of partial range scans is an essential part of building 3D maps, and autonomous creation of reliable maps is a first step towards autonomous mining vehicles. The thesis presents a survey of relevant sensor technology and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different sensors for use in mine environments. A survey of the state of the art in scan registration algorithms is also presented, as well as a number of relevant applications. A new algorithm for registration of 3D data is presented, which is a generalisation of the normal distributions transform (NDT) for 2D data developed by Biber and Straßer. A detailed quantitative and qualitative comparison of the new algorithm with existing registration algorithms is shown. Results with actual mine data, some of which were collected with a new prototype 3D laser scanner, show that the presented algorithm is faster and in many cases more

This paper presents a solution for the problem of correspondence and relative orientation (RO) estimation for a pair of images. The solution is obtained by relaxation labeling using multiple metrics applied to image primitives. Besides the use of metrics based on radiometric elements (intensities, gradient, and coefficient of correlation), and on geometry (distance ratios), two additional metrics are considered. One is based on angular relations between primitives and another based on the volume of Matching Parallelepiped (MP) that allows the inclusion of the epipolar geometry constraint directly in the similarity and compatibility computation. The proposed solution was applied to synthetic and real images. The results showed that the use of multiple metrics contribute to the automation of the correspondence process and RO determination, even considering pairs of images subject to convergence, rotation, differences in scale, and presence of repetitive patterns.