A camera calibration method for large field optical measurement

Abstract

A camera calibration method is presented for large field optical measurement, where the camera is close to the ground and the control points can only be located close to the ground, too. In such conditions, the camera's optical center and the control points are approximately coplanar. Only a single image of these control points captured by the camera in measurement state is used in the method. Neither to distribute the control points in space rationally nor to calibrate the camera's intrinsic parameters in laboratory in advance is needed. By the presented method, the camera's principal point position, focal length, radial and transverse tangency lens distortion coefficients, and the camera's position and attitude parameters can be estimated precisely. Then the calibration results can be used for precise large field optical measurement in the conditions that the camera's longitudinal tangency lens distortion can be neglected or the objects’ movement field is close to the ground, which is usually factual in practical applications. The presented camera calibration method has been successfully used in applications, such as automatic landing of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) based on optical measurement guidance, to calibrate the cameras precisely.