Error analysis for circle fitting algorithms

Abstract

We study the problem of fitting circles (or circular arcs) to data points observed with errors in both variables. A detailed error analysis for all popular circle fitting methods – geometric fit, Kåsa fit, Pratt fit, and Taubin fit – is presented. Our error analysis goes deeper than the traditional expansion to the leading order. We obtain higher order terms, which show exactly why and by how much circle fits differ from each other. Our analysis allows us to construct a new algebraic (non-iterative) circle fitting algorithm that outperforms all the existing methods, including the (previously regarded as unbeatable) geometric fit.