Globally optimal pose estimation from line correspondences

Correspondences between 2D lines in an image and 3D lines in the surrounding environment can be exploited to determine the camera's position and attitude (pose). In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to estimate the camera's pose by directly solving the corresponding least-squares problem algebraically. Specifically, the optimality conditions of the least-squares problem form a system of polynomial equations, which we efficiently solve through the eigendecomposition of a so-called multiplication matrix. Contrary to existing methods, the proposed algorithm (i) is guaranteed to find the globally optimal estimate in the least-squares sense, (ii) does not require initialization, and (iii) has computational cost only linear in the number of measurements. The superior performance of the proposed algorithm compared to previous approaches is demonstrated through extensive simulations and experiments.