Nonmetric Camera Calibration for Underwater Laser Scanning System
- 12 November 2007
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering
- Vol. 32 (2), 383-399
- https://doi.org/10.1109/JOE.2006.880391
Abstract
This paper describes the development of an underwater camera system with a laser line source to measure seafloor features at millimeter scales. The quality of underwater photography is limited by the visibility of the water column. In real underwater environments, there are always suspended particles in the water column and light is scattered by these particles. As a result, photographic images taken under such conditions will be blurred. The stronger the light source is, the more severe the blurring will be. Therefore, it is difficult to discern the features of the intended target directly from the underwater images. To overcome this problem, a laser stripe can be projected onto the target and the profile of the target can be inferred from the displacement of the laser scan lines relative to a reference baseline. With a calibrated camera, the displacement expressed in pixels can be converted into the dimensions of the target in engineering units. To obtain a broader view in a closer distance, a wide-angle lens is usually used. As a result, the image taken with the wide-angle lens is nonlinear and is strongly distorted at the edges of the image. Calibration of a camera involves finding the optical and geometrical parameters of the camera and the environment in which it works. In this paper, a modified coordinate mapping calibration procedure is used. We divide the scope of the camera into several regions and build linear mappings between the world coordinate system and the pixels in the regions. We lay vertical and horizontal grid lines separated by 50 mm on an acrylic board that is aligned with the laser scanning sheet. These grid lines serve as longitude and latitude lines of a map. On the captured image, we curve-fit the grid points in pixel coordinates. A pair of interpolated longitude and latitude lines which pass through the target point are used to estimate the location of the point in the world coordinate system. We assess the accuracy of this procedure with test pieces (grooved blocks and seabed ripples) fabricated by a computer numerical control milling machine. Our measurements show that the error is less than 1.5 mm when the target is scanned from a distance of 1 m.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Modeling and calibration of a structured light scanner for 3-D robot visionPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2005
- A 3-D laser line scanner for outcrop scale studies of seafloor featuresPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2003
- Image processing for wet welding in turbid conditionPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
- A simple system for laser-illuminated video imaging of sediment suspension and bed topographyIEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 1998
- Quantitative photogrammetric analysis of digital underwater video imageryIEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 1997
- A versatile PC-based range finding systemIEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 1991
- Noncontact measurement using line-scan cameras: Analysis of positioning errorIEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 1989
- A versatile camera calibration technique for high-accuracy 3D machine vision metrology using off-the-shelf TV cameras and lensesIEEE Journal on Robotics and Automation, 1987
- UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAMMETRY IN THE NORTH SEAThe Photogrammetric Record, 1983
- Computational StereoACM Computing Surveys, 1982