pointnetplusLayers

(Not recommended) Create PointNet++ segmentation network

Since R2021b

pointnetplusLayers is not recommended. Use the pointnetplusNetwork function (since R2024a) instead. For more information, see Version History.

Syntax

lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses)

lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(___,Name=Value)

Description

PointNet++ is a neural network that predicts point-wise labels for an unorganized lidar point cloud. The network partitions the input points into a set of clusters and then extracts the features using a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) network. To use this network for semantic segmentation, train it using the trainNetwork (Deep Learning Toolbox) function.

lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses) creates a PointNet++ segmentation network and returns it as lgraph, a layerGraph (Deep Learning Toolbox) object.

lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(___,Name=Value) specifies options using one or more name-value arguments in addition to the input arguments in the preceding syntax. For example, pointnetplusLayers(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses,ClusterSize=32) creates a PointNet++ network with 32 points in each cluster.

Examples

Create and Analyze Custom PointNet++ Network

Define the input parameters for a custom PointNet++ network.

numPoints = 10000;
pointsDim = 3;
numClasses = 8;

Create the custom PointNet++ network.

lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses, ...
    NormalizationLayer="instance", ...
    NumSetAbstractionModules=3, ...
    NumClusters=2048, ...
    ClusterRadius=0.1, ...
    ClusterSize=32, ...
    PointNetLayerSize=32);

Analyze the network using the analyzeNetwork (Deep Learning Toolbox) function.

analyzeNetwork(lgraph)

Input Arguments

numPoints — Number of points in input point cloud

positive integer

Number of points in the input point cloud, specified as a positive integer.

pointsDim — Dimensions of input point cloud matrix

positive integer greater than or equal to 3

Dimensions of the input point cloud data matrix, specified as a positive integer greater than or equal to 3. The matrix must contain the xyz coordinates and any additional data such as range, mask, and intensity.

numClasses — Number of classes

positive integer greater than 1

Number of classes the network must be configured to classify, specified as a positive integer greater than 1.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses,NumSetAbstractionModules=3);

NormalizationLayer — Type of normalization

"batch" (default) | "instance"

Type of normalization used in network, specified as "batch" or "instance".

• "batch" — Use a batchNormalizationLayer (Deep Learning Toolbox)

• "instance" — Use an instanceNormalizationLayer (Deep Learning Toolbox)

Data Types: string | char

NumSetAbstractionModules — Number of set abstraction modules

4 (default) | positive integer

Number of set abstraction modules for the encoder subnetwork, specified as a positive integer. The decoder subnetwork must contain the same number of feature propagation modules.

NumClusters — Number of clusters

1024 (default) | positive integer

Number of clusters to group the input points into, specified as a positive integer. The value of NumClusters must be a power of two in the range [ 4^N, numPoints], where N is the number of set abstraction modules.

This value specifies the number of clusters in the first set abstraction module. For subsequent set abstraction modules, the function automatically computes the number of clusters as K/4, where K is the number of clusters from the previous set abstraction module.

ClusterRadius — Cluster radius of input points

0.1 (default) | positive scalar in range (0, 1]

Cluster radius of the input points, specified as a positive scalar in the range (0, 1].

This value specifies the cluster radius for the first set abstraction module. For subsequent set abstraction modules, the function automatically computes the cluster radius as twice the value from the previous set abstraction module.

ClusterSize — Number of points in each cluster

32 (default) | positive integer

Number of points in each cluster, specified as a positive integer. For a given cluster radius in each set abstraction module, this value must be a power of two less than K/4^{(N — 2)}. K is the number of clusters in the network and N is the number of set abstraction modules.

This value is constant across all set abstraction modules.

PointNetLayerSize — Size of first layer in MLP network

32 (default) | positive integer

Size of first layer in the MLP network of the set abstraction module, specified as a positive integer. Each set abstraction module contains a mini PointNet with a shared MLP network implemented using 1-by-1 convolution. The sizes of first, second, and third layers in the shared MLP network are S, S, 2*S which correspond to the number of filters in the first, second and third convolution layers, respectively.

This value specifies the size of first layer in the MLP network of the first set abstraction module. For each subsequent set abstraction modules, the value of S is twice the value of S from the previous set abstraction module.

Output Arguments

lgraph — Output PointNet++ network

layerGraph object

Output PointNet++ network, returned as a layerGraph (Deep Learning Toolbox) object.

More About

PointNet++ Network

A PointNet++ network has an encoder subnetwork with set abstraction modules, followed by a corresponding decoder subnetwork with feature propagation modules.

• The set abstraction module identifies new cluster centers using farthest point sampling and groups the points into clusters using the ball query algorithm. The feature propagation module interpolates the points using inverse weighted distance based on the k-nearest neighbors algorithm.

• The function creates the network with single scale grouping (SSG) architecture.

• The function uses the narrow-normal weight initialization method to initialize the weights of each convolution layer in the network.

• The function initializes all bias terms to zero.

Version History

Introduced in R2021b

R2024a: Not recommended

Starting in R2024a, the pointnetplusLayers function is not recommended. Use the pointnetplusNetwork function instead.

There are no plans to remove support for the pointnetplusLayers function. However, the pointnetplusNetwork function is recommended. The pointnetplusNetwork function returns a dlnetwork (Deep Learning Toolbox) object, which support a wider range of network architectures that you can create or import from external platforms.

This table shows a typical usage of the pointnetplusLayers function and how to update your code to use the pointnetplusNetwork function instead.

Not Recommended	Recommended
lgraph = pointnetplusLayers(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses)	net = pointnetplusNetwork(numPoints,pointsDim,numClasses)