A morphological-based method for inverse offset generation. An application for surface reconstruction using mechanical digitizers

The mechanical digitizers are robust and accurate but they have the disadvantage of not providing the digitized surface directly. Moreover, the information provided is often presented as a cloud of points, which makes the surface interpolation process difficult. Presented in the paper there is an algorithm that virtually reproduces the digitalization process of traditional mechanical copiers. The reconstructed surface is computed from a “virtually digitised” model of the external cloud of points provided by digitizer. The algorithm is then analysed in terms of computing cost and accuracy. The proposed algorithm has been successfully implemented in a commercial CAD/CAM system specialized in shoe last design and machining. Finally, some illustrative examples are shown.