Automatic planning of light source placement for an active photometric stereo system

Presents an automatic planning method of light source placement for an active photometric stereo system. Since photometric stereo systems normally use multiple light sources fixed to the environment, they cannot avoid shadows caused by surrounding objects. One remedy for this situation is to use a movable light source and to adapt its placement actively to the task environment. Candidate positions for light source placement to avoid shadows are obtained based on a 3D model of the environment and image processing of a virtual sphere around the target objects. Then possible combinations evaluated using the combined criteria of reliability and detectability of the measurement. Experimental results, using a light source affixed to a 6DOF manipulator, demonstrate the usefulness of the setup planning method