Automatic geometric calibration and three-dimensional detecting with an artificial compound eye

A bicylinder-based geometric calibration and three-dimensional detecting method is developed for an artificial compound eye. The proposed method uses two coaxial cylinders as reference surfaces. This technique is more suitable for a wide field of view than the traditional two-plane method. A weighted multiple-line intersection algorithm is used to determine precisely the 3D intersecting point. To evaluate these methods, a number of known points that cover a 100°×90° field-of-view and different radial distances are measured. Experimental results indicate that the proposed methods are accurate and reliable, and satisfy the requirements of compound eye calibration.