Photogrammetric reverse engineering of the "Angel of the North"

The Department of Geomatics and the Regional Centre for Innovation in Engin eering Design in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne collaborated in a pr oject to produce precise measurements for use in the fabrication of the bod y of the "Angel of the North" sculpture. This 20 m high edifice, by the scu lptor Antony Gormley, is located adjacent to the Al(M) in Gateshead, Tyne a nd Wear. This paper reviews the photogrammetric reverse engineering work carried out on a 1:10 scale plaster maquette of the "Angel of the North", which is a l ife-size model of the sculptor's body without any arms. The three dimension al measurements of the maquette, made by analytical photogrammetric techniq ues, were then processed to produce a fully functional three dimensional CA D model from which the dimensions needed by the fabricating company, Hartle pool Steel Fabrications Ltd., could be extracted. Additionally, the VirtuoZ o digital photogrammetric software package was used to investigate the pote ntial of automated measurement for this type of work and the results were c ompared with those obtained analytically.