A sensor arrangement optimization method for volumetric tomography: effective voxel correction maximization (EVCM)

This work reports the development and validation of a new imaging sensor arrangement optimization method for volumetric tomography, namely effective voxel corrections maximization (EVCM). Different from past optimization approaches that only studied the influence of sensor orientations on the reconstruction accuracy, the EVCM method considers the impact of both sensor orientations and measured target distribution. Combining all recorded target projections, the EVCM first determines the number of effective voxels, indicating the voxels that participate in tomographic calculation. The method then calculates the number of corrections that modifies the value of effective voxels within a single reconstruction iteration step. The ratio between numbers of corrections and effective voxels (R) is established as a new criterion for the sensor arrangement optimization to achieve improved reconstruction accuracy. Both numerical simulations on signal phantoms and controlled experiments on lab-scale flames are employed to validate the EVCM. Comparisons between EVCM and other sensor arrangement optimization methods are also performed based on the 3D reconstructions both numerically and experimentally. Results show that EVCM turns out to be a more accurate way to decide the optimal arrangements specified for different 3D targets.