Calibrating photogrammetric airborne camera systems with diffractive optical elements

Abstract

This paper presents a laboratory approach for geometric calibration of airborne camera systems. The setup uses an incoming laser beam, which is split by Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE) into a number of beams with precisely-known propagation directions. Each point of the diffraction pattern represents a point at infinity and is invariant against translation. A single image is sufficient to allow a complete camera calibration in accordance with classical camera calibration methods using the pinhole camera model and a distortion model. The presented method is time saving, since complex bundle adjustment procedures with several images are not necessary. It is well suited for the use with frame camera systems, but it works in principle also for pushbroom scanners. In order to prove the reliability, a conventional test field calibration is compared against the presented approach, showing that all estimated camera parameters are just insignificantly different. Furthermore a test flight over the Zeche Zollern reference target has been conducted. The aerotriangulation results shows that calibrating an airborne camera system with DOE is a feasible solution.