Methodology for Designing an Optimal Test Stand for Camera Thermal Drift Measurements and Its Stability Verification

The effects of temperature changes on cameras are realized by observing the drifts of characteristic points in the image plane. Compensation for these effects is crucial to maintain the precision of cameras applied in machine vision systems and those expected to work in environments with varying factors, including temperature changes. Generally, mathematical compensation models are built by measuring the changes in the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters under the temperature effect; however, due to the assumptions of certain factors based on the conditions of the test stand used for the measurements, errors can become apparent. In this paper, test stands for thermal image drift measurements used in other works are assessed, and a methodology to design a test stand, which can measure thermal image drifts while eliminating other external influences on the camera, is proposed. A test stand was built accordingly, and thermal image drift measurements were performed along with a measurement to verify that the test stand did eliminate external influences on the camera. The experiment was performed for various temperatures from 5 °C to 45 5 °C, and as a result, the thermal image drift measured with the designed test stand showed its maximum error of 16% during its most rapid temperature change from 25 °C to 5 °C.