Determining Camera Pose based on Cylinder

Camera pose determination for cylinder with single camera is a problem that is referred little and more puzzled. Traditional pose estimation methods using point features, straight line features and conics features have corresponding problems when they are applied to pose computation based on cylinder. This article designs a geometric model composed of four tangential ellipses that surround the surface of a cylinder. By using the preserved characteristic of conics and the corresponding characteristic of ellipse, we obtain three control points which can determine the pose of the model uniquely, thus the current problem of is converted into the problem of P3P. At the same time, a judgment method is developed to get the solution mode of P3P according to the distribution of visual arc on the model based on the analysis of the solution mode region of P3P. After that the proving process is presented. At last, simulation experiments with the algorithm are carried out and experimental results show its effectiveness.