Photogrammetric Multi-Camera Calibration Using An Industrial Programmable Robotic Arm

Abstract

Calibration of multiple cameras is a critical step in most vision enhancement systems. Target-based calibration approaches are known to provide accurate and stable results. However, they require manually performed capture procedures. This paper presents a generalization of a widely used single-camera target-based calibration algorithm to the case of n cameras. In order to obtain fully repeatable results, we propose the elimination of the manual capture step using a programmable robotic arm. Furthermore, we investigate the use of the position feedback provided by the robot. This is done specifically for the case of calibrating cameras without assumptions on their positions and overlapping of their fields of view. Results show that automatically captured images provide more accurate calibration results than the classical approach. Additionally, calibration of fully non-overlapping setups is made possible through our approach.