Feature-based point cloud simplification method: an effective solution for balancing accuracy and efficiency

Traditional point cloud simplification methods are slow to process large point clouds and prone to losing small features, which leads to a large loss of point cloud accuracy. In this paper, a new point cloud simplification method using a three-step strategy is proposed, which realizes efficient reduction of large point clouds while preserving fine features through point cloud down-sampling, normal vector calibration, and feature extraction based on the proposed feature descriptors and neighborhood subdivision strategy. In this paper, we validate the method using measured point clouds of large co-bottomed component surfaces, visualize the errors, and compare it with other methods. The results demonstrate that this method is well-suited for efficiently reducing large point clouds, even those on the order of ten million points, while maintaining high accuracy in feature retention, refinement precision, efficiency, and robustness to noise.