Calibration method of absolute orientation of camera optical axis

Abstract

Camera calibration is one of the most basic and important processes in optical measuring field. Generally, the objective of camera calibration is to estimate the internal and external parameters of object cameras, while the orientation error of optical axis is not included yet. Orientation error of optical axis is a important factor, which seriously affects measuring precision in high-precision measurement field, especially for those distant aerospace measurement in which object distance is much longer than focal length, that lead to magnifying the orientation errors to thousands times. In order to eliminate the influence of orientation error of camera optical axis, the imaging model of camera is analysed and established in this paper, and the calibration method is also introduced: Firstly, we analyse the reasons that cause optical axis error and its influence. Then, we find the model of optical axis orientation error and imaging model of camera basing on it’s practical physical meaning. Furthermore, we derive the bundle adjustment algorithm which could compute the internal and external camera parameters and absolute orientation of camera optical axis simultaneously at high precision. In numeric simulation, we solve the camera parameters by using bundle adjustment optimization algorithm, then we correct the image points by calibration results according to the model of optical axis error, and the simulation result shows that our calibration model is reliable, effective and precise.