Time-of-Flight sensor calibration for accurate range sensing

Over the past years Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors have become a considerable alternative to conventional distance sensing techniques like laser scanners or image based stereo-vision Due to the ability to provide full-range distance information at high frame-rates ToF sensors achieve a significant Impact onto current research areas like online object recognition collision prevention or scene and object reconstruction Nevertheless ToF-cameras like the Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) still exhibit a number of error sources that affect the accuracy of measured distance information For this reason major error sources for ToF-cameras will be discussed along with a new calibration approach that combines intrinsic distance as well as a reflectivity related error calibration in an overall easy to use system and thus significantly reduces the number of necessary reference Images The main contribution in this context is a new intensity-based calibration model that requires less input data compared to other models and thus significantly contributes to the reduction of calibration data (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved