Camera calibration for a mobile robot prototype

Stereovision is an effective technique to use a CCD video camera to determine the 3D position of a target object from two or more simultaneous views of the scene. Camera calibration is a central issue in finding the position of objects in a stereovision system. This is usually carried out by calibrating each camera independently, and then applying a geometric transformation of the external parameters to find the geometry of the stereo setting. After calibration, the distance of various target objects in the scene can be calculated with CCD video cameras, and recovering the 3D structure from 2D images becomes simpler. However, the process of camera calibration is complicated. Based on the ideal pinhole model of a camera, we describe formulas to calculate intrinsic parameters that specify the correct camera characteristics, and extrinsic parameters that describe the spatial relationship between the camera and the world coordinate system. A simple camera calibration method for our CCD video cameras and corresponding experiment results are also given. This work was presented in part at the 7th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 16–18, 2002     

Autonomous robot calibration using vision technology

Unlike the traditional robot calibration methods, which need external expensive calibration apparatus and elaborate setups to measure the 3D feature points in the reference frame, a vision-based self-calibration method for a serial robot manipulator, which only requires a ground-truth scale in the reference frame, is proposed in this paper. The proposed algorithm assumes that the camera is rigidly attached to the robot end-effector, which makes it possible to obtain the pose of the manipulator with the pose of the camera. By designing a manipulator movement trajectory, the camera poses can be estimated up to a scale factor at each configuration with the factorization method, where a nonlinear least-square algorithm is applied to improve its robustness. An efficient approach is proposed to estimate this scale factor. The great advantage of this self-calibration method is that only image sequences of a calibration object and a ground-truth length are needed, which makes the robot calibration procedure more autonomous in a dynamic manufacturing environment. Simulations and experimental studies on a PUMA 560 robot reveal the convenience and effectiveness of the proposed robot self-calibration approach.     

Online robot calibration based on vision measurement

Robot calibration is a useful diagnostic method to improve positioning accuracy in robot production and maintenance. Unlike traditional calibration methods that require expensive equipment and complex steps, a vision-based online robot calibration method that only requires several reference images is presented in this paper. The method requires a camera that is rigidly attached to the robot end effector (EE), and a calibration board must be settled around the robot where the camera can see it. An efficient automatic approach to detect the corners from the images of the calibration board is proposed. The poses of the robot can be estimated from the detected corners. The kinematic parameters can be conducted automatically based on the known poses of the robot. Unlike in the existing self-calibration methods, the great advantage of this online self-calibration method is that the entire process of robot calibration is automatic and without any manual intervention, enabling the robot calibration to be completed online when the robot is working. Therefore, the proposed approach is particularly suitable for unknown environments, such as deep sea or outer space. In these high-temperature and/or high-pressure environments, the shapes of the robot links are easy to change. Thus, the robot kinematic parameters are changed by allowing the robot to grab objects with different qualities to verify the performance of the online robot calibration. Experimental studies on a GOOGOL GRB3016 robot show that the proposed method has high accuracy, convenience, and high efficiency.     

Robust metric calibration of non-linear camera lens distortion

Camera lens distortion is crucial to obtain the best performance cameral model. Up to now, different techniques exist, which try to minimize the calibration error using different lens distortion models or computing them in different ways. Some compute lens distortion camera parameters in the camera calibration process together with the intrinsic and extrinsic ones. Others isolate the lens distortion calibration without using any template and basing the calibration on the deformation in the image of some features of the objects in the scene, like straight lines or circles. These lens distortion techniques which do not use any calibration template can be unstable if a complete camera lens distortion model is computed. They are named non-metric calibration or self-calibration methods.Traditionally a camera has been always best calibrated if metric calibration is done instead of self-calibration. This paper proposes a metric calibration technique which computes the camera lens distortion isolated from the camera calibration process under stable conditions, independently of the computed lens distortion model or the number of parameters. To make it easier to resolve, this metric technique uses the same calibration template that will be used afterwards for the calibration process. Therefore, the best performance of the camera lens distortion calibration process is achieved, which is transferred directly to the camera calibration process.     

Camera calibration with one-dimensional objects

Camera calibration has been studied extensively in computer vision and photogrammetry and the proposed techniques in the literature include those using 3D apparatus (two or three planes orthogonal to each other or a plane undergoing a pure translation, etc.), 2D objects (planar patterns undergoing unknown motions), and 0D features (self-calibration using unknown scene points). Yet, this paper proposes a new calibration technique using 1D objects (points aligned on a line), thus filling the missing dimension in calibration. In particular, we show that camera calibration is not possible with free-moving 1D objects, but can be solved if one point is fixed. A closed-form solution is developed if six or more observations of such a 1D object are made. For higher accuracy, a nonlinear technique based on the maximum likelihood criterion is then used to refine the estimate. Singularities have also been studied. Besides the theoretical aspect, the proposed technique is also important in practice especially when calibrating multiple cameras mounted apart from each other, where the calibration objects are required to be visible simultaneously.     

结构光视觉引导的焊接机器人系统自标定技术

为实现结构光视觉引导的焊接机器人系统的标定,解决现有标定方法复杂,标定靶标制作要求高等缺点,提出一种基于主动视觉的自标定方法。该标定方法对场景中3个特征点取像,通过精确控制焊接机器人进行5次平移运动,标定摄像机内参数和手眼矩阵旋转部分;通过进行2次带旋转运动,结合激光条在特征点平面的参数方程,标定手眼矩阵平移部分和结构光平面在摄像机坐标系下的平面方程;并针对不同焊枪长度进行修正。在以Denso机器人为主体构建的结构光视觉引导的焊接机器人系统上的测试结果稳定,定位精度可达到±0.93 mm。该标定方法简单,特征选取容易,对焊接机器人系统在实际工业现场的使用有重要意义。     

基于一维标定物的多摄像机标定

一维标定物是由三个或三个以上彼此距离已知的共线点构成的. 现有文献指出只有当一维标定物做平面运动或者绕固定点转动时，才能实现摄像机的标定. 本文的研究结果表明，当多个摄像机同时观察作任意刚体运动的一维标定物时，则该摄像机组能被线性地标定. 本文给出一种线性标定算法，并使用最大似然准则对线性算法结果进行精化. 模拟实验和真实图像实验都表明本文的算法是有效可行的.     

Initialization method for self-calibration using 2-views

Recently, 3D structure recovery through self-calibration of camera has been actively researched. Traditional calibration algorithm requires known 3D coordinates of the control points while self-calibration only requires the corresponding points of images, thus it has more flexibility in real application. In general, self-calibration algorithm results in the nonlinear optimization problem using constraints from the intrinsic parameters of the camera. Thus, it requires initial value for the nonlinear minimization. Traditional approaches get the initial values assuming they have the same intrinsic parameters while they are dealing with the situation where the intrinsic parameters of the camera may change. In this paper, we propose new initialization method using the minimum 2 images. Proposed method is based on the assumption that the least violation of the camera's intrinsic parameter gives more stable initial value. Synthetic and real experiment shows this result.     

摄像机自标定方法的研究与进展

该文回顾了近几年来摄像机自标定技术的发展,并分类介绍了其中几种主要方法.同 传统标定方法相比,自标定方法不需要使用标定块,仅根据图像间图像点的对应关系就能估计 出摄像机内参数.文中重点介绍了透视模型下的几种重要的自标定方法,包括内参数恒定和内 参数可变两种情形;最后还简要介绍了几种非透视模型下的摄像机自标定方法.     

Camera self-calibration with varying intrinsic parameters by an unknown three-dimensional scene

This work proposes a method of camera self-calibration having varying intrinsic parameters from a sequence of images of an unknown 3D object. The projection of two points of the 3D scene in the image planes is used with fundamental matrices to determine the projection matrices. The present approach is based on the formulation of a nonlinear cost function from the determination of a relationship between two points of the scene and their projections in the image planes. The resolution of this function enables us to estimate the intrinsic parameters of different cameras. The strong point of the present approach is clearly seen in the minimization of the three constraints of a self-calibration system (a pair of images, 3D scene, any camera): The use of a single pair of images provides fewer equations, which minimizes the execution time of the program, the use of a 3D scene reduces the planarity constraints, and the use of any camera eliminates the constraints of cameras having constant parameters. The experiment results on synthetic and real data are presented to demonstrate the performance of the present approach in terms of accuracy, simplicity, stability, and convergence.     

一种新的基于直线特征的摄像机自标定方法

通过引入场景的几何约束,提出了一种新的基于直线的摄像机自标定方法。利用射影几何中平行直线投影的交点与光心的连线平行于该平行直线的性质,给出了摄像机内参数的线性求解方法。只假设场景中存在垂直的平行直线,相对于文献［1］而言,其适用的情况更为广泛。实验结果验证了方法的有效性。     

Editing Object Behaviour in Video Sequences

While there are various commercial-strength editing tools available today for still images, object-based manipulation of real-world video footage is still a challenging problem. In this system paper, we present a framework for interactive video editing. Our focus is on footage from a single, conventional video camera. By relying on spatio-temporal editing techniques operating on the video cube, we do not need to recover 3D scene geometry. Our framework is capable of removing and inserting objects, object motion editing, non-rigid object deformations, keyframe interpolation, as well as emulating camera motion. We demonstrate how movie shots with moderate complexity can be persuasively modified during post-processing.     

基于场景几何约束未标定两视图的三维模型重建

提出了一种从两幅未标定图象重建场景三维模型的方法 .这种方法充分利用了人造结构场景中大量存在的平行性和正交性几何约束 ,即利用每幅视图中三组互相垂直的平行线 ,计算出 3个影灭点 ,从而对每幅视图进行标定 .对两幅未标定图象 ,从基本矩阵只能得到射影重构 ,如果每幅图象都已标定 ,则可将基本矩阵转化为本质矩阵 .三维重构过程有两个步骤 :先是恢复相机的位置和运动 ;后是用三角测量法计算出点的三维坐标 .对多平面组成的场景进行三维重构实验 ,所得三维模型产生新的视点图象 ,与所观察的场景一致 ,重构的两个平面夹角与实际值相近 ,实验结果表明 ,该算法是行之有效的     

Epipolar geometry from profiles under circular motion

Addresses the problem of motion estimation from profiles (apparent contours) of an object rotating on a turntable in front of a single camera. A practical and accurate technique for solving this problem from profiles alone is developed. It is precise enough to reconstruct the shape of the object. No correspondences between points or lines are necessary. Symmetry of the surface of revolution swept out by the rotating object is exploited to obtain the image of the rotation axis and the homography relating epipolar lines in two views robustly and elegantly. These, together with geometric constraints for images of rotating objects, are used to obtain first the image of the horizon, which is the projection of the plane that contains the camera centers, and then the epipoles, thus fully determining the epipolar geometry of the image sequence. The estimation of this geometry by this sequential approach avoids many of the problems found in other algorithms. The search for the epipoles, by far the most critical step, is carried out as a simple 1D optimization. Parameter initialization is trivial and completely automatic at all stages. After the estimation of the epipolar geometry, the Euclidean motion is recovered using the fixed intrinsic parameters of the camera obtained either from a calibration grid or from self-calibration techniques. Finally, the spinning object is reconstructed from its profiles using the motion estimated in the previous stage. Results from real data are presented, demonstrating the efficiency and usefulness of the proposed methods     

一种基于4对图像对应点的欧氏重建方法

摄像机自标定算法通常是非线性的，为了得到线性的方法，提出了一种在RANSAC框架下由4对图像对应点线性标定摄像机并对场景进行鲁棒性欧氏重建的方法。当摄像机作两组平移运动时，若在两组平移运动之间摄像机具有不同的姿态，则从4对图像对应点可以线性地重建场景的欧氏几何。模拟实验和真实图像实验均证明了本文方法的可行性。     

基于多视图像的摄像机自标定方法

摄像机标定是三维重建时的必要步骤。传统的标定方法对设备要求高、操作繁琐,而自标定方法虽然简便,但精度不高,会严重影响三维重建的效果。因此,越来越需要一种操作简便并且精度高的自标定方法。采用SIFT特征点匹配算法,根据多视序列图像中对应点间的相互关系,利用光束法平差,提出了一种基于局部-全局混合优化的迭代优化方法。针对图像匹配量大的问题,提出了一种邻域内图像互匹配方法来降低时间代价。实验表明,本文提出的多摄像机自标定方法是一种有效的高精度方法,采用的邻域内图像互匹配技术能很好地降低图像匹配的时间消耗。根据多视图像的对应点间相互关系,充分利用局部-全局优化的思想,通过混合优化的方法得到相机参数,对比现有自标定算法,本文给出的方法有较高的精度和鲁棒性。     

摄像机线性三步定标方法研究

计算机视觉中，在对景物进行定量分析或对物体进行精确定位时，都需要进行摄像机标定，即准确确定摄像机的内部参数和外部参数。由于真实的摄像机光学模型存在很多类型的畸变，因而导致透视投影关系是非线性的。为了解决标定过程的非线性最优化问题，针对常用的带有一阶径向畸变的摄像机模型，提出了一种新的线性三步摄像机定标方法，即首先通过径向排列约束计算摄像机参数的旋转矩阵、x轴平移向量和y轴平移向量；然后根据透视投影的交比不变性解算一阶径向畸变参数；最后利用求得的摄像机参数建立有效焦距和z轴平移向量的线性方程，采用最小二乘法来得到线性解。实验表明，该方法简单快捷，不仅具有较高的标定精度，而且解决了原有算法采用非线性搜索寻优可能存在的解不稳定的问题。     

基于目标检测的机器人手眼标定方法

智能协作机器人依赖视觉系统感知未知环境中的动态工作空间定位目标,实现机械臂对目标对象的自主抓取回收作业。RGB-D相机可采集场景中的彩色图和深度图,获取视野内任意目标三维点云,辅助智能协作机器人感知周围环境。为获取抓取机器人与RGB-D相机坐标系之间的转换关系,提出基于yolov3目标检测神经网络的机器人手眼标定方法。将3D打印球作为标靶球夹持在机械手末端,使用改进的yolov3目标检测神经网络实时定位标定球的球心,计算机械手末端中心在相机坐标系下的3D位置,同时运用奇异值分解方法求解机器人与相机坐标系转换矩阵的最小二乘解。在6自由度UR5机械臂和Intel RealSense D415深度相机上的实验结果表明,该标定方法无需辅助设备,转换后的空间点位置误差在2 mm以内,能较好满足一般视觉伺服智能机器人的抓取作业要求。     

Putting Objects in Perspective

Image understanding requires not only individually estimating elements of the visual world but also capturing the interplay among them. In this paper, we provide a framework for placing local object detection in the context of the overall 3D scene by modeling the interdependence of objects, surface orientations, and camera viewpoint. Most object detection methods consider all scales and locations in the image as equally likely. We show that with probabilistic estimates of 3D geometry, both in terms of surfaces and world coordinates, we can put objects into perspective and model the scale and location variance in the image. Our approach reflects the cyclical nature of the problem by allowing probabilistic object hypotheses to refine geometry and vice-versa. Our framework allows painless substitution of almost any object detector and is easily extended to include other aspects of image understanding. Our results confirm the benefits of our integrated approach.     

Self-calibration of hybrid central catadioptric and perspective cameras

Hybrid central catadioptric and perspective cameras are desired in practice, because the hybrid camera system can capture large field of view as well as high-resolution images. However, the calibration of the system is challenging due to heavy distortions in catadioptric cameras. In addition, previous calibration methods are only suitable for the camera system consisting of perspective cameras and catadioptric cameras with only parabolic mirrors, in which priors about the intrinsic parameters of perspective cameras are required. In this work, we provide a new approach to handle the problems. We show that if the hybrid camera system consists of at least two central catadioptric and one perspective cameras, both the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the system can be calibrated linearly without priors about intrinsic parameters of the perspective cameras, and the supported central catadioptric cameras of our method can be more generic. In this work, an approximated polynomial model is derived and used for rectification of catadioptric image. Firstly, with the epipolar geometry between the perspective and rectified catadioptric images, the distortion parameters of the polynomial model can be estimated linearly. Then a new method is proposed to estimate the intrinsic parameters of a central catadioptric camera with the parameters in the polynomial model, and hence the catadioptric cameras can be calibrated. Finally, a linear self-calibration method for the hybrid system is given with the calibrated catadioptric cameras. The main advantage of our method is that it cannot only calibrate both the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the hybrid camera system, but also simplify a traditional nonlinear self-calibration of perspective cameras to a linear process. Experiments show that our proposed method is robust and reliable.