A Stochastic Iterative Closest Point Algorithm (stochastICP)

We present a modification to the iterative closest point algorithm which improves the algorithm's robustness and precision. At the start of each iteration, before point correspondence is calculated between the two feature sets, the algorithm randomly perturbs the point positions in one feature set. These perturbations allow the algorithm to move out of some local minima to find a minimum with a lower residual error. The size of this perturbation is reduced during the registration process. The algorithm has been tested using multiple starting positions to register three sets of data: a surface of a femur, a skull surface and a registration to hepatic vessels and a liver surface. Our results show that, if local minima are present, the stochastic ICP algorithm is more robust and is more precise than the standard ICP algorithm.