Using Blender as a Tool to Simulate 3d Camera Based Measurements

Abstract

Blender is a free and open-source 3D animation software, that has the potential to be used as a metrology simulation tool, to build digital models that can be used in the design and optimisation of camerabased measurement systems. In this work the feasibility of using of Blender for measurement system simulation is explored. Using Blender, a simple camera-based measurement task was simulated, in which a camera is used to measure the observable diameter of a white sphere. The aim was to check if the virtual cameras created in Blender can perceive and measure the sphere in the same manner as real cameras when repeating the procedure in a closely matching real-world experimentation.