SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to automate the creation of digital 3D building models and 3D street maps used in the personal navigation, architecture, engineering, defense and homeland security markets. It currently requires hundreds of hours to create a 3D model of an average city building or streetscape using a tripod-mounted or vehicle-mounted laser scanner and available CAD software. This research will potentially reduce that time significantly. Automated 3D modeling has been a primary goal of the CAD industry for a generation. The problem can be divided into two separate challenges: 1) identifying and extracting observed surfaces, and 2) subsequently extending those surfaces automatically to form a solid 3D model. The proposed research involves developing algorithms to extrapolate observed building surfaces and extend them to correctly intersect other surfaces, completing the solid 3D model entirely automatically. The potential to create highly accurate 3D building models and 3D street maps in minutes will enable cost-effective modeling of entire cities. Accurate 3D city models made widely available to the public has the potential to have a profound impact on the mapping and personal navigation markets as well as commercial architecture, engineering projects, virtual tourism and first responder effectiveness. In the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) market alone, firms spend nearly $800 million per year on manually creating 3D building models. The proposed effort will not replace the existing CAD programs; rather, it will work with CAD programs to remove the tedious and expensive manual steps of model creation from vehicle-mounted and tripod-mounted laser scanners. If successfully developed, the commercial potential of automated high-definition 3D building models and 3D street maps is significant.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop and commercialize the first automated modeling software to create fully 3D computer models of buildings, streetscapes, and entire cities. 3D models are used extensively in the architecture/engineering (A/E), personal navigation/mapping, and government markets. However, it currently can take hundreds of hours of tedious manual tracing of laser scan or photogrammetry point clouds to create a full 3D model of a single large building. The output of this research will be a fundamental change from current CAD technology that should reduce 3D modeling time by 99%. Automating 3D model creation is a massive mathematical challenge, one that has vexed the CAD/mapping community for decades. Algorithmically accounting for the innumerable geometries of building facades and automatically creating a light-weight, accurate, fully 3D streetscape model has never before been successfully accomplished, according to all published literature. This project should be able to be the first software available that creates fully 3D, centimeter-accurate building models automatically. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant. The widespread availability of fully 3D city models and streetscapes will have a profound impact on the personal navigation, commercial real estate, design/construction, first responder, security, and defense industries. Although this project is high-risk due to the enormity of the algorithmic challenge, it is high reward with a commercial potential close to one billion dollars. In the A/E market alone, firms spend nearly $800 million per year on manually creating 3D building models. Successful commercialization of this research will reduce those costs by up to 99%. The project should deliver a completely innovative technology and a totally new economic equation to the marketplace - one that will spur the widespread adoption of high-resolution 3D building models and 3D streetscapes among consumers and industry alike.