Large depth-of-view portable three-dimensional laser scanner and its segmental calibration for robot vision

A portable 3D laser scanning system has been designed and built for robot vision. By tilting the charge coupled device (CCD) plane of portable 3D scanning system according to the Scheimpflug condition, the depth-of-view is successfully extended from less than 40 to 100 mm. Based on the tilted camera model, the traditional two-step camera calibration method is modified by introducing the angle factor. Meanwhile, a novel segmental calibration approach, i.e., dividing the whole work range into two parts and calibrating, respectively, with corresponding system parameters, is proposed to effectively improve the measurement accuracy of the large depth-of-view 3D laser scanner. In the process of 3D reconstruction, different calibration parameters are used to transform the 2D coordinates into 3D coordinates according to the different positions of the image in the CCD plane, and the measurement accuracy of is obtained experimentally. Finally, the experiment of scanning a lamina by the large depth-of-view portable 3D laser scanner used by an industrial robot IRB 4400 is also employed to demonstrate the effectiveness and high measurement accuracy of our scanning system.     

Calibration procedure for a laser triangulation scanner with uncertainty evaluation

Most of low cost 3D scanning devices that are nowadays available on the market are sold without a user calibration procedure to correct measurement errors related to changes in environmental conditions. In addition, there is no specific international standard defining a procedure to check the performance of a 3D scanner along time. This paper aims at detailing a thorough methodology to calibrate a 3D scanner and assess its measurement uncertainty. The proposed procedure is based on the use of a reference ball plate and applied to a triangulation laser scanner. Experimental results show that the metrological performance of the instrument can be greatly improved by the application of the calibration procedure that corrects systematic errors and reduces the device's measurement uncertainty.     

A novel TCF calibration method for robotic visual measurement system

An accurate TCF (tool control frame) model is essential for high-accuracy robot off-line programming. Meanwhile, TCF calibration is an important procedure for production recovery after robot collides in industrial field. This article proposes a novel TCF calibration method in robotic visual measurement system in which the robot TCF is defined based on the model of visual sensor and a standard sphere with known diameter is utilized as the calibration target. With the translational and rotational movements of the industrial robot, the visual senor measures the center of standard sphere from multiple different robot postures, TCF orientation and TCP position are determined in two steps. Robot off-line programming is performed based on the TCF calibration result, and robot collision is simulated on an ABB IRB2400 industrial robot. Experimental results have validated the effectiveness and efficiency of the standard sphere-based TCF calibration method, which could control the deviation of an identical featured point within 0.5 mm measured before and after collision recovery.     

三维形貌柔性测量系统标定方法及验证

为了避免机器人模型误差对三维形貌柔性测量系统手眼标定的影响,对手眼关系的标定方法进行了研究。提出了一种融合特征点拟合的手眼标定方法。将三维形貌扫描仪安装在工业机器人末端搭建三维形貌柔性测量系统。标定时,首先利用激光跟踪仪对工业机器人末端法兰盘坐标系进行测量,得到两者转换关系;然后,利用三维形貌扫描仪和激光跟踪仪对空间固定的特征点组进行测量,利用特征点约束和基于罗德里格矩阵的算法求解两者转换关系即可间接地求解出手眼关系。基于ATOS三维扫描仪、安川HP20D机器人和API公司生产的激光跟踪仪进行了手眼标定实验,并进行了精度验证。结果表明:标定后的三维形貌柔性测量系统,其重复性测量精度(3σ)不超过0.1 mm,长度测量精度的均方根误差在0.2 mm以内,点云拼接精度优于±0.7 mm。该方法有效避免了传统手眼标定过程中会引入机器人模型误差的问题,在求解手眼关系解时采用了线性的解法,并且适用于三维形貌柔性测量系统。     

3D laser scanner system using high dynamic range imaging

Because of its high measuring speed, moderate accuracy, low cost and robustness in the industrial field, 3D laser scanning has been widely used in a variety of applications. However, the measurement of a 3D profile of a high dynamic range (HDR) brightness surface such as a partially highlighted object or a partial specular reflection remains one of the most challenging problems. This difficulty has limited the adoption of such scanner systems. In this paper, an optical imaging system based on a high-resolution liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) device and an image sensor (CCD or CMOS) was built to adjust the image's brightness pixel by pixel as required. The radiance value of the image captured by the image sensor is constrained to lie within the dynamic range of the sensor after an adaptive algorithm of pixel mapping between the LCoS mask plane and image plane through the HDR imaging system is added. Thus, an HDR image was reconstructed by the LCoS mask and the CCD image on this system. The significant difference between the proposed system and a traditional 3D laser scanner system is that the HDR image was used to calibrate and calculate the 3D profile coordinate. Experimental results show that HDR imaging can enhance 3D laser scanner system environmental adaptability and improve the accuracy of 3D profile measurement.     

一种无公共视场相机位置关系的求解方法

多相机系统的标定是立体视觉测量中的一个重要问题。而当各相机间公共视场较小或无公共视场时,标定参照物不能同时出现在所有相机的公共视场,因此无法求解系统中多相机的相对位置关系。针对该类问题,论文在二维靶标标定法的基础上,提出了一种基于两轴转台的无公共视场相机位置关系的求解方法。将待标定系统固定在转台上,利用转台转动确定靶标坐标系与转台坐标系之间的相对关系;通过转动转台使二维靶标依次进入每个相机视场以分别确定转动后每个相机在靶标坐标系中的位置,并记录转动的角度;最后,结合靶标坐标系与转台坐标系关系,求解各相机之间的相对位置关系。实验结果表明,该方法具有可操作性,解算误差在0.5%以内,可较准确地确定多个光轴之间角度较大的非共视场相机位置关系。     

基于激光雷达的移动机器人动态障碍检测

动态环境下运动物体的检测是移动机器人研究的难点问题之一。以未知环境为研究背景,提出了一种基于激光雷达的自主动态障碍检测方法。通过k-近邻方法对激光雷达测距数据进行了空间障碍聚类,在此基础上分析了聚类障碍的特征参数,例如区域、质心,利用聚类障碍数据的时间关联性分析并确定了障碍的类型,并采用模糊地图匹配的策略实现了地图匹配和更新。在所研制的移动机器人上进行了实验,实验结果验证了方法的有效性。     

基于视觉跟踪的机器人测量方法与实现

为了对自主研发的工业机器人进行校准从而提高其运动精度,提出一种采用双目视觉动态跟踪球面编号靶点的机器人标定方法,利用安装在机器人末端靶球上特征分布的编号标志点进行工作空间内任意位姿的测量,由最小二乘迭代准确辨识出机器人的几何结构参数对控制器进行补偿。利用MFC由开放式、模块化思想编制标定软件,设计视觉测量、数据处理、机器人控制等功能模块,最后通过测量实例和对比实验,验证其可靠性和准确性。实验表明,该软件测量得到的位姿数据具有较高的精度,扩大了传统视觉跟踪的视野范围;同时将识别得到的机器人模型实际几何参数进行反馈补偿,成功地将机器人绝对位置精度由3.785 mm提高到1.618 mm,姿态精度由0.235 提高到0.139。     

Innovative calibration technique for fringe projection based 3D scanner

A new approach to 3D scanners calibration, based on Fourier Transform Profilometry method, is proposed and verified by experiments. Commonly used calibration techniques require that a calibration plane is placed in different and known positions in the scanner measuring volume; an optimization procedure iteratively change the value of some calibration parameters in order to minimize the discrepancy between the height distributions of the measured planes and the reference ones. The main limit of this type of calibration techniques is the necessity to guarantee a high accuracy in the placement of the planes used as calibration references. The innovation of the method proposed in this paper is the complete removal of any device for the accurate plane placement by assigning the task of the plane positions estimation to the camera, which is part of the scanner. The well known camera calibration algorithm proposed by Zhang permits at the same time to calibrate the camera and to estimate the positions and orientations of the plane used for the calibration itself. The knowledge of the plane position allows to use them as a reference of the scanner calibration. The obtained results show that this method provides accuracy values for the scanner parameters estimation comparable with other calibration techniques, but the advantage is that no particular device is needed.     

A calibrated atomic force microscope using an orthogonal scanner and a calibrated laser interferometer

A compact and two-dimensional atomic force microscope (AFM) using an orthogonal sample scanner, a calibrated homodyne laser interferometer and a commercial AFM head was developed for use in the nano-metrology field. The x and y position of the sample with respect to the tip are acquired by using the laser interferometer in the open-loop state, when each z data point of the AFM head is taken. The sample scanner, which has a motion amplifying mechanism was designed to move a sample up to 100 μm × 100 μm in orthogonal way, which means less crosstalk between axes. Moreover, the rotational errors between axes are measured to ensure the accuracy of the calibrated AFM within the full scanning range. The conventional homodyne laser interferometer was used to measure the x and y displacements of the sample and compensated via an X-ray interferometer to reduce the nonlinearity of the optical interferometer. The repeatability of the calibrated AFM was measured to sub-nanometers within a few hundred nanometers scanning range.     

Sphere-based calibration method for trinocular vision sensor

A new method to calibrate a trinocular vision sensor is proposed and two main tasks are finished in this paper, i.e. to determine the transformation matrix between each two cameras and the trifocal tensor of the trinocular vision sensor. A flexible sphere target with several spherical circles is designed. As the isotropy of a sphere, trifocal tensor of the three cameras can be determined exactly from the feature on the sphere target. Then the fundamental matrix between each two cameras can be obtained. Easily, compatible rotation matrix and translation matrix can be deduced base on the singular value decomposition of the fundamental matrix. In our proposed calibration method, image points are not requested one-to-one correspondence. When image points locates in the same feature are obtained, the transformation matrix between each two cameras with the trifocal tensor of trinocular vision sensor can be determined. Experiment results show that the proposed calibration method can obtain precise results, including measurement and matching results. The root mean square error of distance is 0.026 mm with regard to the view field of about 200×200 mm and the feature matching of three images is strict. As a sphere projection is not concerned with its orientation, the calibration method is robust and with an easy operation. Moreover, our calibration method also provides a new approach to obtain the trifocal tensor.     

Laboratory calibration of star sensor with installation error using a nonlinear distortion model

The high-precise star sensor calibration method requires high-accurate turntable, collimator, star point plate or other high-precision devices that are very expensive. We present a simple and available method to calibrate the principal point, focal length, radial distortion, tangential distortion and installation error of star sensor in laboratory, and without having high accurate or expensive devices. The calibration model takes the ordinary camera calibration methods and installation error into account. The installation error is modeled by combination of three typical effects: the installation of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) initial status, PTZ and charge-coupled device, which result in six parameters. The proposed procedure consists of a closed-form solution, followed by a nonlinear refining based on maximum likelihood criterion. Our calibration method is validated through simulation and real data that shows the superiority with respect to the traditional methods and has the same level as the state-of-the-art methods. The accuracy of our calibration method is 0.015° in the root of mean square distances between testing points and projected ones.     

高能激光能量计溯源问题研究北大核心

由于高能激光能量计标定过程中没有标准的能量测量装置和标准的激光源,无法采用常规方法对其进行标校。提出了一种利用现有小能量计从低到高逐级多次传递不确定度的方法,以及一种利用能量等效原理对激光能量计进行标校的方法。不确定度传递法方法简单,但环节较多导致不确定度较大。等效标定法包括电标法和光标法,电标法对设计要求较高,但求解过程相对简单。光标法工程实现难度要低得多,但必须事先对灯组余热及热损失进行测算。等效法的三个条件与误差大小关系紧密,在结构设计中必须严格考虑,它是提高测量准确性的根本,其次要尽量减少不确定度传递的中间环节,最后需要对误差项进行科学分析和测定,在此基础上对这些项进行相应的修正和补偿。     

Standard artifact for the geometric verification of terrestrial laser scanning systems

Terrestrial laser scanners are geodetic instruments with applications in areas such as architecture, civil engineering or environment. Although it is common to receive the technical specifications of the systems from their manufacturers, there are not any solutions for data verification in the market available for the users. This work proposes a standard artifact and a methodology to perform, in a simple way, the metrology verification of laser scanners.The artifact is manufactured using aluminium and delrin, materials that make the artifact robust and portable. The system consists of a set of five spheres situated at equal distances to one another, and a set of seven cubes of different sizes. A coordinate measuring machine with sub-millimetre precision is used for calibration purposes under controlled environmental conditions. After its calibration, the artifact can be used for the verification of metrology specifications given by manufacturers of laser scanners.The elements of the artifact are destinated to test different metrological characteristics, such as accuracy, precision and resolution. The distance between centres of the spheres is used to obtain the accuracy data, the standard deviation of the top face of the largest cube is used to establish the precision (repeatability) and the error in the measurement of the cubes provides the resolution value in axes X, Y and Z. Methodology for the evaluation is mainly supported by least squares fitting algorithms developed using Matlab programming.The artifact and methodology proposed were tested using a terrestrial laser scanner Riegl LMSZ-390i at three different ranges (10, 30 and 50 m) and four stepwidths (0.002°, 0.005°, 0.010° and 0.020°), both for horizontal and vertical displacements. Results obtained are in agreement with the accuracy and precision data given by the manufacturer, 6 and 4 mm, respectively. On the other hand, important influences between resolution and range and between resolution and stepwidth are observed. For example, the two smaller cubes cannot be well detected in any case and, as must be expected, the increase in range and stepwidth produces a decrease in the quality of the detection for the larger ones.     

Study on fast linear scanning for a new laser scanner

In the field of lidar system design, there is a need for laser scanners that offer fast linear scanning, are small size and have small a rotational inertia moment. Currently, laser scanners do not meet the above needs. A new laser scanner based on two amplified piezoelectric actuators is designed in this paper. The laser scanner has small size, high mechanical resonance frequencies and a small rotational inertia moment. The size of the mirror is 20 mm×15 mm. To achieve fast linear scanning performance, an open-loop controller is designed to compensate the hysteresis behavior and to restrain oscillations that are caused by the mechanical resonances of the scanner's mechanical structure. By comparing measured scanning waveforms, nonlinearities and scan line images between the uncontrolled and controlled scanner, it was found that the scanning linearity of linear scanning was improved The open-loop controlled laser scanner realizes linear scanning at 250 Hz with optical scan angle of ±12 mrad.     

A performance evaluation test for laser line scanners on CMMs

This paper presents a performance evaluation test for laser line scanners on 3D coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). Laser line scanners are becoming more popular in recent years, mainly for free form inspection tasks and reverse engineering. Error specification of these scanners is difficult because of many influencing factors like surface quality, surface orientation and scan depth. Therefore, procedures for evaluation and verification of conventional contact probes (e.g. touch-trigger probes) are not appropriate for non-contact laser line scanners. A straightforward test method that uses a planar test artefact is proposed. It enables to identify the influence of in-plane and out-of-plane angle, as well as scan depth on systematic and random errors of the laser scanner. Experimental results show that the tested commercial laser scanner, after calibration, exhibits systematic errors of about 10 μm.     

车载激光测绘系统的标定

介绍了车载激光测绘系统的组成和工作原理。对系统中的激光扫描仪增设了可见光源作为标校参考光,以便有效地确定激光测量中心和扫描方向,并直接测量部分标校参数。根据其特点,设计了基于可见参考光的标校方案。进行了静态标校试验和激光测绘系统动态精度测量试验,试验得到标定误差为0.028 1 m,系统平面定位误差为0.288 m。通过系统精度试验分析,进一步验证了标定方案的正确性和有效性。     

基于IMU的3D扫描仪倾角标定方法北大核心CSCD

3D扫描仪以精度高、速度快、自动处理、稳定性好等优势在场景三维重建、智能制造、自动驾驶、虚拟现实等领域得到了广泛的应用。目前3D扫描仪设备多是安装在三脚架上,容易因为地面不平使得扫描仪的转轴和重力方向产生夹角,最终导致拍摄出的全景图和点云倾斜,成为影响三维重建精度的关键难题。针对该问题,提出一种借助惯性测量单元标定3D扫描仪倾角的方法。该方法利用惯性测量单元输出的加速度信息,通过一个面阵相机建立惯性测量单元和3D扫描仪的联系,将惯性测量单元的加速度信息转到扫描仪的转轴上。利用该信息计算出扫描仪转轴与重力方向的夹角,并将该倾角补偿到生成的全景图和点云中,校正倾斜模型。通过实验对校正前后计算的角度进行对比,实验结果证明倾角测量误差可以控制在0.5°以内。并且经过标定后,精度至少提升20%,验证了整个标定方法的可靠性和准确性。     

Non-contact scanning measurement utilizing a space mapping method

In this study, a novel approach to a measuring methodology and calibration method for an optical non-contact scanning probe system is proposed and verified by experiments. The optical probe consists of a line laser diode and two charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras and is placed on a computer numerical control (CNC) machine to measure the workpiece profiles. A space mapping method using the least-squares algorithm is presented for the probe calibration and profile measurement. This method provides a simple and accurate calculation of the relationship between the real space plane and its related image space plane in a CCD camera. A transparent grid with regularly spaced nodal points is used to construct the space mapping function. The space coordinate of an object can be obtained from its image in the CCD camera via the mapping function. The measured profile data are smoothed by the B-spline blending function and can be transferred to a CAD/CAM package for industrial applications. Experimental results show that this technique can determine the 3-D profile of an object with an accuracy of 60 μm.     

Coaxial monitoring of keyhole during Yb:YAG laser welding

In laser remote welding using a scanner, high-speed welding can be achieved by using a 6-axial robot and a galvanometric mirror. In this system, because the laser projection point changes depending on the mirror's position, coaxial monitoring is required to track welding phenomena.This paper presents coaxial monitoring of the keyhole generated by an Yb:YAG laser beam during laser lap welding of steel and Al sheets. A coaxial image camera and a coaxial illumination laser are integrated into the proposed monitoring system. The areas of the keyhole and the full penetration hole were calculated by image processing, and their behaviours were investigated under various welding conditions. The keyhole was monitored using various band-pass filters and a coaxial illumination laser. Adequate filters were suggested for steel and Al alloy welding.