A calibration method for stereo vision sensor with large FOV based on 1D targets

Large FOV (field of view) stereo vision sensor is of great importance in the measurement of large free-form surface. Before using it, the intrinsic and structure parameters of cameras should be calibrated. Traditional methods are mainly based on planar or 3D targets, which are usually expensive and difficult to manufacture especially for large dimension ones. Compared to that the method proposed in this paper is based on 10 (one dimensional) targets, which are easy to operate and with high efficiency. First two 1D targets with multiple feature points are placed randomly, and the cameras acquire multiple images of the targets from different angles of view. With the fixed angle between vectors defined by the two 1D targets we can establish the objective function with intrinsic parameters, which can be later solved by the optimization method. Then the stereo vision sensor with two calibrated cameras is set up, which acquire multiple images of another 10 target with two feature points in unrestrained motion. The initial values of the structure parameters are estimated by the linear method for the known distance between two feature points on the ID target, while the optimal ones and intrinsic parameters of the stereo vision sensor are estimated with non-linear optimization method by establishing the minimizing function involving all the parameters. The experimental results show that the measurement precision of the stereo vision sensor is 0.046 mm with the working distance of about 3500 mm and the measurement scale of about 4000 mm x 3000 mm. The method in this paper is proved suitable for calibration of stereo vision sensor of large-scale measurement field for its easy operation and high efficiency. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.