Novel Calibration Method for the Multi-Camera Measurement System

In a multi-camera measurement system, the determination of the external parameters is one of the vital tasks, referred to as the calibration of the system. In this paper, a new geometrical calibration method, which is based on the theory of the vanishing line, is proposed. Using a planar target with three equally spaced parallel lines, the normal vector of the target plane can be confirmed easily in every camera coordinate system of the measurement system. By moving the target into more than two different positions, the rotation matrix can be determined from related theory, i.e., the expression of the same vector in different coordinate systems. Moreover, the translation matrix can be derived from the known distance between the adjacent parallel lines. In this paper, the main factors effecting the calibration are analyzed. Simulations show that the proposed method achieves robustness and accuracy. Experimental results show that the calibration can reach 1.25 mm with the range about 0.5m. Furthermore, this calibration method also can be used for auto-calibration of the multi-camera mefasurement system as the feature of parallels exists widely.