A Specialized Pipeline for Efficient and Reliable 3D Semantic Model Reconstruction of Buildings from Indoor Point Clouds

Recent advances in laser scanning systems have enabled the acquisition of 3D point cloud representations of scenes, revolutionizing the fields of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC). This paper presents a novel pipeline for the automatic generation of 3D semantic models of multi-level buildings from indoor point clouds. The architectural components are extracted hierarchically. After segmenting the point clouds into potential building floors, a wall detection process is performed on each floor segment. Then, room, ground, and ceiling extraction are conducted using the walls 2D constellation obtained from the projection of the walls onto the ground plan. The identification of the openings in the walls is performed using a deep learning-based classifier that separates doors and windows from non-consistent holes. Based on the geometric and semantic information from previously detected elements, the final model is generated in IFC format. The effectiveness and reliability of the proposed pipeline are demonstrated through extensive experiments and visual inspections. The results reveal high precision and recall values in the extraction of architectural elements, ensuring the fidelity of the generated models. In addition, the pipeline's efficiency and accuracy offer valuable contributions to future advancements in point cloud processing.