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Reverse engineering involves digitizing a three-dimensional model or part, by means of a tactile or non-contact optical sensor, converting the data to a CAD (computer aided design) database description and manufacturing by CNC (computer numerical controlled) machines. This paper demonstrates an effective approach to the reverse engineering of physical models by employing a three-dimensional laser scanning system in conjunction with surface-fitting software developed by the authors. Accurate surface data are collected by the laser scanner and then input to the surface-fitting software. Surface entities such as B-spline and quadric functions are employed to build the CAD model. The CAD model is compatible with popular design and manufacturing software packages. A telephone receiver is used to illustrate the efficiency of the process.

The design of products containing sculptured surfaces typically begins with the crafting of a clay or wood model. The physical model must be reverse engineered to create a CAD representation. Three dimensional computer vision systems are currently being employed to digitize models in the first step of reverse engineering. In this paper, a three dimensional vision system that permits multiple viewpoint digitization is described. Furthermore, a new approach to modeling the data sets generated employing wrap-around B-spline surface patches is presented. The laser digitization and software modeling of bicycle seat and telephone handset models are presented.