Virtual reality calibration for telerobotic servicing

A virtual reality calibration technique of matching a virtual environment of simulated graphics models in 3-D geometry and perspective with actual camera views of the remote site task environment has been developed to enable high-fidelity preview/predictive displays with calibrated graphics overlay on live video. Reliable and accurate calibration is achieved by operator-interactive camera calibration and object localization. Both rely on nonlinear least-squares algorithms combined with linear ones. Since the object pose becomes known through object localization, the computer-generated trajectory mode can be effectively used in our new approach. This newly developed calibration technique has been successfully utilized in a recent JPL/GSFC (Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Goddard Space Flight Center) telerobotic servicing demonstration. The positioning alignment accuracy achieved by this technique from four camera views was 0.51 cm on the average for a tool insertion in the servicing task