Authors: S\'{e}bastien Gemme, Joseph Nsasi Bakambu, Ioannis Rekleitis
Abstract: In this paper we present our approach to 3D surface reconstruction from large sparse range data sets. In space robotics constructing an accurate model of the environment is very important for a variety of reasons. In particular, the constructed model can be used for: safe tele-operation, path planning, planetary exploration and mapping of points of interest. Our approach is based on acquiring range scans from different view-points with overlapping regions, merge them together into a single data set, and fit a triangular mesh on the merged data points. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in a path planning scenario and also by creating the accessibility map for a portion of the Mars Yard located in the Canadian Space Agency.