# Cylinder model segmentation

This tutorial exemplifies how to run a Sample Consensus segmentation for cylindrical models. To make the example a bit more practical, the following operations are applied to the input dataset (in order):

• data points further away than 1.5 meters are filtered
• surface normals at each point are estimated
• a plane model (describing the table in our demo dataset) is segmented and saved to disk
• a cylindrical model (describing the mug in our demo dataset) is segmented and saved to disk

Note

The cylindrical model is not perfect due to the presence of noise in the data.

# The code

Then, create a file, let’s say, cylinder_segmentation.cpp in your favorite editor, and place the following inside it:

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include typedef pcl::PointXYZ PointT; int main (int argc, char** argv) { // All the objects needed pcl::PCDReader reader; pcl::PassThrough pass; pcl::NormalEstimation ne; pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals seg; pcl::PCDWriter writer; pcl::ExtractIndices extract; pcl::ExtractIndices extract_normals; pcl::search::KdTree::Ptr tree (new pcl::search::KdTree ()); // Datasets pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud (new pcl::PointCloud); pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud_filtered (new pcl::PointCloud); pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud_normals (new pcl::PointCloud); pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud_filtered2 (new pcl::PointCloud); pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud_normals2 (new pcl::PointCloud); pcl::ModelCoefficients::Ptr coefficients_plane (new pcl::ModelCoefficients), coefficients_cylinder (new pcl::ModelCoefficients); pcl::PointIndices::Ptr inliers_plane (new pcl::PointIndices), inliers_cylinder (new pcl::PointIndices); // Read in the cloud data reader.read ("table_scene_mug_stereo_textured.pcd", *cloud); std::cerr << "PointCloud has: " << cloud->points.size () << " data points." << std::endl; // Build a passthrough filter to remove spurious NaNs pass.setInputCloud (cloud); pass.setFilterFieldName ("z"); pass.setFilterLimits (0, 1.5); pass.filter (*cloud_filtered); std::cerr << "PointCloud after filtering has: " << cloud_filtered->points.size () << " data points." << std::endl; // Estimate point normals ne.setSearchMethod (tree); ne.setInputCloud (cloud_filtered); ne.setKSearch (50); ne.compute (*cloud_normals); // Create the segmentation object for the planar model and set all the parameters seg.setOptimizeCoefficients (true); seg.setModelType (pcl::SACMODEL_NORMAL_PLANE); seg.setNormalDistanceWeight (0.1); seg.setMethodType (pcl::SAC_RANSAC); seg.setMaxIterations (100); seg.setDistanceThreshold (0.03); seg.setInputCloud (cloud_filtered); seg.setInputNormals (cloud_normals); // Obtain the plane inliers and coefficients seg.segment (*inliers_plane, *coefficients_plane); std::cerr << "Plane coefficients: " << *coefficients_plane << std::endl; // Extract the planar inliers from the input cloud extract.setInputCloud (cloud_filtered); extract.setIndices (inliers_plane); extract.setNegative (false); // Write the planar inliers to disk pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud_plane (new pcl::PointCloud ()); extract.filter (*cloud_plane); std::cerr << "PointCloud representing the planar component: " << cloud_plane->points.size () << " data points." << std::endl; writer.write ("table_scene_mug_stereo_textured_plane.pcd", *cloud_plane, false); // Remove the planar inliers, extract the rest extract.setNegative (true); extract.filter (*cloud_filtered2); extract_normals.setNegative (true); extract_normals.setInputCloud (cloud_normals); extract_normals.setIndices (inliers_plane); extract_normals.filter (*cloud_normals2); // Create the segmentation object for cylinder segmentation and set all the parameters seg.setOptimizeCoefficients (true); seg.setModelType (pcl::SACMODEL_CYLINDER); seg.setMethodType (pcl::SAC_RANSAC); seg.setNormalDistanceWeight (0.1); seg.setMaxIterations (10000); seg.setDistanceThreshold (0.05); seg.setRadiusLimits (0, 0.1); seg.setInputCloud (cloud_filtered2); seg.setInputNormals (cloud_normals2); // Obtain the cylinder inliers and coefficients seg.segment (*inliers_cylinder, *coefficients_cylinder); std::cerr << "Cylinder coefficients: " << *coefficients_cylinder << std::endl; // Write the cylinder inliers to disk extract.setInputCloud (cloud_filtered2); extract.setIndices (inliers_cylinder); extract.setNegative (false); pcl::PointCloud::Ptr cloud_cylinder (new pcl::PointCloud ()); extract.filter (*cloud_cylinder); if (cloud_cylinder->points.empty ()) std::cerr << "Can't find the cylindrical component." << std::endl; else { std::cerr << "PointCloud representing the cylindrical component: " << cloud_cylinder->points.size () << " data points." << std::endl; writer.write ("table_scene_mug_stereo_textured_cylinder.pcd", *cloud_cylinder, false); } return (0); } 

# The explanation

The only relevant lines are the lines below, as the other operations are already described in the other tutorials.

  // Create the segmentation object for cylinder segmentation and set all the parameters
seg.setOptimizeCoefficients (true);
seg.setModelType (pcl::SACMODEL_CYLINDER);
seg.setMethodType (pcl::SAC_RANSAC);
seg.setNormalDistanceWeight (0.1);
seg.setMaxIterations (10000);
seg.setDistanceThreshold (0.05);


As seen, we’re using a RANSAC robust estimator to obtain the cylinder coefficients, and we’re imposing a distance threshold from each inlier point to the model no greater than 5cm. In addition, we set the surface normals influence to a weight of 0.1, and we limit the radius of the cylindrical model to be smaller than 10cm.

# Compiling and running the program

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8 FATAL_ERROR) project(cylinder_segmentation) find_package(PCL 1.2 REQUIRED) include_directories(${PCL_INCLUDE_DIRS}) link_directories(${PCL_LIBRARY_DIRS}) add_definitions(${PCL_DEFINITIONS}) add_executable (cylinder_segmentation cylinder_segmentation.cpp) target_link_libraries (cylinder_segmentation${PCL_LIBRARIES}) 

After you have made the executable, you can run it. Simply do:

\$ ./cylinder_segmentation


You will see something similar to:

PointCloud has: 307200 data points.
PointCloud after filtering has: 139897 data points.
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSACModel] Using a model of type: SACMODEL_NORMAL_PLANE
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSACModel] Setting normal distance weight to 0.100000
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSAC] Using a method of type: SAC_RANSAC with a model threshold of 0.030000
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSAC] Setting the maximum number of iterations to 100
seq: 0
stamp: 0.000000000
frame_id:
values[]
values[0]: -0.0161854
values[1]: 0.837724
values[2]: 0.545855
values[3]: -0.528787

PointCloud representing the planar component: 117410 data points.
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSACModel] Using a model of type: SACMODEL_CYLINDER
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSACModel] Setting radius limits to 0.000000/0.100000
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSACModel] Setting normal distance weight to 0.100000
[pcl::SACSegmentationFromNormals::initSAC] Using a method of type: SAC_RANSAC with a model threshold of 0.050000
[pcl::SampleConsensusModelCylinder::optimizeModelCoefficients] LM solver finished with exit code 2, having a residual norm of 0.322616.
Initial solution: 0.0452105 0.0924601 0.790215 0.20495 -0.721649 -0.661225 0.0422902
Final solution: 0.0452105 0.0924601 0.790215 0.20495 -0.721649 -0.661225 0.0396354
seq: 0
stamp: 0.000000000
frame_id:
values[]
values[0]: 0.0452105
values[1]: 0.0924601
values[2]: 0.790215
values[3]: 0.20495
values[4]: -0.721649
values[5]: -0.661225
values[6]: 0.0396354

PointCloud representing the cylindrical component: 8625 data points.