Review on Deep Learning Algorithms and Benchmark Datasets for Pairwise Global Point Cloud Registration

Point cloud registration is the process of aligning point clouds collected at different locations of the same scene, which transforms the data into a common coordinate system and forms an integrated dataset. It is a fundamental task before the application of point cloud data. Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of various deep-learning-based global registration methods to improve performance. Therefore, it is appropriate to carry out a comprehensive review of the more recent developments in this area. As the developments require access to large benchmark point cloud datasets, the most widely used public datasets are also reviewed. The performance of deep-learning-based registration methods on the benchmark datasets are summarized using the reported performance metrics in the literature. This forms part of a critical discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods considered in this article, which supports presentation of the main challenges currently faced in typical global point cloud registration tasks that use deep learning methods. Recommendations for potential future studies on this topic are provided.