Registration of multiple range images by extracting planes

We describe a method for aligning multiple range images given by a range finder. We used range images of the insides and outsides of buildings, which often contain many planes. Our method for registering range images is to refine the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm using not only 3-D information but normal vectors of planes in the scene since structures of buildings often consist of planes. Analysis showed that multiple range images were aligned more accurately and faster using our method compared with the standard ICP algorithm.