Integrated Reverse Modeling techniques for the survey of complex shapes in Industrial Design

This chapter proposal deals with three-dimensional survey methods applied to the geometrical acquisition of Industrial Design products. 3D acquisition techniques are defined by well-know procedures that nowadays are applied in a lot of fields, from Mechanics to Aerospace, from Robotics to Cultural Heritage. In the last years the impressive technology evolution used for developing hardware and software allowed to reach excellence peaks in the 3D instruments application. At the same time a lot of experiments and researches were leaded in order to reach a well structured pipeline of reverse modeling process, supporting the process from the real object to its digital mould. In the last decade 3D acquisition and modeling techniques tried to support Industrial Design production, but their role in every single process is not yet systematically codified for some bottlenecks present in the design process and in product knowledge, that will be discussed in the chapter in relation with the state of the art of the current technology. In addition the level of geometrical complexity of any specific product often highlight limitations in the use of a single 3D laser scanner technology, which can’t reach good results with all the typologies of Industrial Design products. These factors are critically framed, outlining the definition of object complexity towards the suited choice of survey methods and technologies for every condition. The actual limits of 3D acquisition systems will be identified and compared to integrate ones (i.e. systems composed by different complementary instruments are used together) applied in different fields, from Car Design to Product Restyling, from Nautical Analysis to Design in Cultural Heritage. The aim of the contribution is to demonstrate the intrinsic limits of a single 3D instrument application and the necessity to apply multi-resolution system or sensor fusion to solve the larger part of the problems in the 3D acquisition of complex shapes.