IBPA: Real-time Free-form Manifold Mesh Reconstruction via Incremental Ball Pivoting with Integrated Hole Detection

2026-07-13

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of reconstructing complex underwater geometries—particularly those with overhangs or vertical structures—from incomplete point clouds, a task where traditional height-field–based approaches such as digital terrain models fail. The authors propose an enhanced incremental Ball Pivoting algorithm capable of real-time, assumption-free processing of streaming point cloud data. The method dynamically constructs orientable manifold meshes while simultaneously detecting hole regions. Notably, it achieves real-time incremental mesh reconstruction without requiring point cloud overlap or prior assumptions about point distribution, supporting complex topologies where conventional techniques fall short. The approach significantly outperforms existing methods and has been integrated into a system that enables real-time visualization of surface coverage, thereby facilitating informed in-situ decision-making.

Abstract

Both Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are frequently deployed to acquire geometric bathymetric data. However, it is often discovered post-survey that the acquired data coverage is incomplete. Given the high operational cost associated with underwater deployments, it is essential to incrementally visualize surface coverage in real-time to support informed decision-making by both the operators of ROVs and the AUVs during data collection. In addition, traditional incremental surface reconstruction methods, such as Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), are inherently limited in expressiveness: they represent surfaces as height fields, allows only one elevation value per $(x, y)$ coordinate and thus cannot capture overhangs or vertical structures. To overcome these limitations, we adapt the original Ball Pivoting Algorithm (BPA) into an incremental, real-time, and free-form surface reconstruction method, referred to as Incremental BPA (IBPA). Our method incrementally constructs an orientable, manifold mesh from streaming point cloud data without imposing assumptions regarding point cloud overlap or spatial distribution. Furthermore, we introduce a hole detection mechanism that identifies and highlights incomplete mesh regions. Compared to existing approaches, our method supports more complex surface topologies without prior structural assumptions. The source code of our reference implementation is available: https://github.com/Mauhing/Incremental-BPA

Problem

• real-time surface reconstruction
• underwater bathymetric data
• incremental meshing
• manifold mesh
• hole detection

Innovation

• Incremental Ball Pivoting
• real-time surface reconstruction
• manifold mesh
• hole detection
• free-form topology