308 COMPUTER AIDED ENGINEERING DESIGN
10.7 Some Examples of Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering has been applied widely for rapid product development. An application^1 on
reducing the design-to-manufacturing cycle for automobile illustrates how Ford with the assistance
of a measuring system, photogrammetry and optical scanning, was able to accomplish this for a new
concept car. Some studies^2 demonstrate the creation of physical models of biological forms through
reverse engineering for medical treatment planning. The steps in these applications are acquiring CT
data, creating a faceted model and physical replication through rapid prototyping. Use of physical
models for treatment planninng/visualization instead of solely using computer software generated
display images based on X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI)
data results in better treatment with lowered risk rates and recovery period.
Application of reverse engineering in heritage preservation is another interesting development.
The Afghanistan Institute and Museum, Bubendorf (Switzerland) and the New 7 Wonders Society and
Foundation, Zurich (Switzerland) have launched a campaign to reconstruct the Buddha in Bamiyan
to original shape, size and place through photogrammetry^3. One of the digital archiving projects
using laser-scanning technology took place in Kamakura to model the Great Buddha^4. In another
example of heritage preservation application using optical scanning technology, a team of 30 faculty,
staff and students from Stanford University and the University of Washington spent the 1998-99
academic year in Italy scanning the sculptures and architecture of Michelangelo^5.
Reverse Engineering of physical objects to extract their three-dimensional features from point
clouds for CAD/CAM application is a fast developing technology. The state of the art in reverse
engineering and concurrent commercial software systems allow for point cloud processing and single
surface modeling with interactive help. The automatic replication of complete B-rep models is
possible in simple cases at this time. Key research areas, which still need further work, include
improving data capture and coping with noise and missing data, and reliable segmentation and
surface fitting to obtain the desired geometric model. This chapter is an effort towards understanding
some methods in reverse engineering. The field being an active research area, an interested reader
may refer to the ongoing developments in literature.
(^1) Sherry L. Baranek, “Designing the Great American Supercar,” Time-Compression Technologies Magazine,
September 2002.
(^2) S. Swann, “Integration of MRI and Stereolithography to build medical models. A case study,” Rapid Prototype
Journal Vol 2. No. 4, 1996 p. 41–46.
(^3) Gruen, A., Remondino, F. and Zhang, L., “Reconstruction of the great Buddha of Bamiyan,” Afganistan. ISPRS
Commission V Symposium, Corfu (Greece) 2002.
(^4) Daisuke Miyazaki, Takeshi Ooishi, Taku Nishikawa, Ryusuke Sagawa, Ko Nishino, Takashi Tomomatsu, Yutaka
Takase and Katsushi Ikeuchi, “The Great Buddha Project: Modelling Cultural Heritage through Observation,”
in http://www.cadcenter.co.jp/en/webgallery/webgallery cg24.html.
(^5) Marc Levoy, Kari Pulli, Brian Curless, Szymon Rusinkiewicz, David Koller, Lucas Pereira, Matt Ginzton, Sean
Anderson, James Davis, Jeremy Ginsberg, Jonathan Shade and Duane Fulk, “The Digital Michelangelo Project:
3D Scanning of Large Statues,” Proc. Siggraph 2000. pp. 131–144, and http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/
mich.
_