Extrinsic parameter calibration of stereo vision sensors using spot laser projector

The on-site calibration of stereo vision sensors plays an important role in the measurement field. Image coordinate extraction of feature points of existing targets is difficult under complex light conditions in outdoor environments, such as strong light and backlight. This paper proposes an on-site calibration method for stereo vision sensors based on a spot laser projector for solving the above-mentioned problem. The proposed method is used to mediate the laser spots on the parallel planes for the purpose of calibrating the coordinate transformation matrix between two cameras. The optimal solution of a coordinate transformation matrix is then solved by nonlinear optimization. Simulation experiments and physical experiments are conducted to validate the performance of the proposed method. Under the condition that the field of view is approximately 400  mm×300  mm, the proposed method can reach a calibration accuracy of 0.02 mm. This accuracy value is comparable to that of the method using a planar target.