A Minimal Solution for Binocular Camera Relative Pose Estimation Based on the Gravity Prior
High-precision positioning is the foundation for the functionality of various intelligent agents. In complex environments, such as urban canyons, relative pose estimation using cameras is a crucial step in high-precision positioning. To take advantage of the ability of an inertial measurement unit (...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/15/2560 |
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| Summary: | High-precision positioning is the foundation for the functionality of various intelligent agents. In complex environments, such as urban canyons, relative pose estimation using cameras is a crucial step in high-precision positioning. To take advantage of the ability of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to provide relatively accurate gravity prior information over a short period, we propose a minimal solution method for the relative pose estimation of a stereo camera system assisted by the IMU. We rigidly connect the IMU to the camera system and use it to obtain the rotation matrices in the roll and pitch directions for the entire system, thereby reducing the minimum number of corresponding points required for relative pose estimation. In contrast to classic pose-estimation algorithms, our method can also calculate the camera focal length, which greatly expands its applicability. We constructed a simulated dataset and used it to compare and analyze the numerical stability of the proposed method and the impact of different levels of noise on algorithm performance. We also collected real-scene data using a drone and validated the proposed algorithm. The results on real data reveal that our method exhibits smaller errors in calculating the relative pose of the camera system compared with two classic reference algorithms. It achieves higher precision and stability and can provide a comparatively accurate camera focal length. |
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| ISSN: | 2072-4292 |