Calibration and 3D reconstruction with omnidirectional ranging-by-optic-flow camera

There are limitations when applying active sensing in designing guidance systems for UAVs, which can be bulky and expensive. An omnidirectional ranging-by-optic-flow camera was introduced, which was composed of a traditional perspective camera and a reflective mirror with certain imaging characteristic. The imaging characteristic helped establish a simple relationship between the distance from space point to the optical axis of camera and the value of optic flow. Thus, 3D reconstruction of test scene could be realized directly. As a result, the ranging accuracy of the system is mainly influenced by the angular error of installation through simulation experiments. Therefore, a new parameters calibration method was proposed to assist in improving ranging accuracy. Results show that 3D reconstruction can be achieved by exploiting the designed camera to the stereo scene. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed calibration and reconstruction method. ©, 2015, Zhejiang University. All right reserved.