Calibration techniques for camera and robot manipulator

his thesis presents new calibration techniques for camera and robot manipulators. Any equipment must be calibrated to achieve accurate functioning. Camera calibration is an important process in three-dimensional (3D) vision applications where it is required to relate two-dimensional (2D) images to the 3D world. Camera calibration involves modeling the relationship between the positions of features in 3D space to their corresponding positions in the 2D image. A camera calibration procedure determines the internal geometric and optical parameters, such as, focal length and image center (intrinsic parameters), and the 3D position and orientation of the camera relative to a world coordinate frame (extrinsic parameters). Robot calibration is essential to improve the positioning accuracy of robot manipulators. A mathematical (kinematic) model is used to describe the geometric structure of a robot manipulator. Robot calibration procedure involves calculating and improving the values of this model's parameters.;The camera calibration technique presented in this thesis calibrates the intrinsic parameters. The technique uses an active camera (capable of pan, tilt and roll movements) to capture images. Relationships among these images are represented by linear equations involving the camera parameters, which are then solved. This procedure does not require a pre-defined calibration pattern.;The robot calibration technique presented in this thesis uses a vision system to calibrate the kinematic model. For an n-linked robot manipulator, the procedure calibrates one link at a time, starting with the...