Pose Estimation of a Moving Camera With Low-Cost, Multi-GNSS Devices

Abstract

Abstract. Without additional prior information, the pose of a camera estimated with computer vision techniques is expressed in a local coordinate frame attached to the camera’s initial location. Albeit sufficient in many cases, such an arbitrary representation is not convenient for employment in certain applications and has to be transformed to a coordinate system external to the camera before further use. Assuming a camera that is firmly mounted on a moving platform, this paper describes a method for continuously tracking the pose of that camera in a projected coordinate system. By combining exterior orientation from a known target with incremental pose changes inferred from accurate multi-GNSS positioning, the full 6 DoF pose of the camera is updated with low processing overhead and without requiring the continuous visual tracking of ground control points. Experimental results of applying the proposed method to a moving vehicle and a mobile port crane are reported, demonstrating its efficacy and potential.

A Micro-moment recommendation framework in industrial environments

“…Visual information is captured through a monocular camera installed on a mobile harbor crane. This camera shares a common reference frame with the crane, determined using a set of reference ground control points surveyed with topographic equipment (see for more information: Lourakis et al, 2020). Visual input is used to monitor moving containers in correlation with workers location and trigger proximity alerts.…”

Computer vision for increasing safety in container handling operations

“…To align the local coordinate system of the tracking camera with a ground coordinate system, a camera georeferencing technique combining information from ground control points and low-cost GNSS receivers was developed (Lourakis, et al, 2020).…”

A Redundant Configuration of Four Low-Cost GNSS-RTK Receivers for Reliable Estimation of Vehicular Position and Posture

“…With modern GNSS receivers, the GNSS-IMU sensor combination [ 14 ] and the synchronization of three low-cost GNSS-RTK devices [ 6 , 15 ] or three antennas in a single receiver [ 16 ] have also been employed in automobiles. Moreover, by tightly coupling three GNSS-RTK receivers and an IMU, accuracy can be improved even more [ 1 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…Regarding the third point, following a low-cost philosophy, it is employed an open-source software of common use in robotics with some already developed nodes in a mini computer instead of programming on specialized boards [ 6 , 15 , 16 ].…”