Combined Static and Dynamic Platform Calibration for an Aerial Multi-Camera System

Multi-camera systems which integrate two or more low-cost digital cameras are adopted to reach higher ground coverage and improve the base-height ratio in low altitude remote sensing. To guarantee accurate multi-camera integration, the geometric relationship among cameras must be determined through platform calibration techniques. This paper proposed a combined two-step platform calibration method. In the first step, the static platform calibration was conducted based on the stable relative orientation constraint and convergent conditions among cameras in static environments. In the second step, a dynamic platform self-calibration approach was proposed based on not only tie points but also straight lines in order to correct the small change of the relative relationship among cameras during dynamic flight. Experiments based on the proposed two-step platform calibration method were carried out with terrestrial and aerial images from a multi-camera system combined with four consumer-grade digital cameras onboard an unmanned aerial vehicle. The experimental results have shown that the proposed platform calibration approach is able to compensate the varied relative relationship during flight, acquiring the mosaicing accuracy of virtual images smaller than 0.5pixel. The proposed approach can be extended for calibrating other low-cost multi-camera system without rigorously mechanical structure.