Camera modeling and distortion calibration for mobile robot vision

To control the mobile robot with the surrounding information is the essential method to realize the intelligence and automatic moving. The vision information is the most important way to perceive the environment for the mobile robot. This paper presents an essential camera calibration technique for mobile robot, which is based on Pioneer II experiment platform. The technique includes transformation of coordinates system for vision system, the model and principle of image formation, camera distortion calibration. Because of non-linear distortion of camera, algorithm with optimizing operators is presented to improve calibration precision. We verify the validity and feasibility of the algorithm through experiment.