Flexible three-dimensional reconstruction via structured-light-based visual positioning and global optimization

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction using line structured light vision system commonly cooperates with motion restraint devices, such as parallel guide rail push-broom devices. In this study, we propose a visual positioning method to eliminate the motion constraint. An extended orthogonal iteration algorithm for visual positioning is proposed to obtain the precise position of the line structured light binocular camera system during movement. The algorithm uses the information acquired by the binocular camera, and produces a better positioning accuracy than the traditional vision localization algorithm. Furthermore, a global optimization method is proposed to calculate the poses of the camera relative to the world coordinate system at each shooting position. This algorithm effectively reduces the error accumulation and pose drift during visual positioning, and 3D information of the surface can be measured via the proposed free-moving line structured light vision system. The simulation and physical experiments performed herein validate the proposed method and demonstrate the significant improvement in the reconstruction accuracy: when the test distance is 1.5 m, the root mean square error of the point cloud is within 0.5 mm.