Automatic Setup and Calibration of a Robotic PIV System using Fiducial Markers

Abstract

The use of industrial robots allows the precise manipulation of all components necessary for setting up a large-scale PIV system. The known internal calibration matrix of the cameras in combination with the actual pose of the industrial robots and the calculated transform from the fiducial markers to camera coordinates allow the precise positioning of the individual PIV components according to the measurement demands. In addition, the complete calibration procedure for generating the external camera matrix and the mapping functions for e.g. de-warping the stereo images can be automatically determined without further user interaction and thus the degree of automation can be extended to nearly 100%. This increased degree of automation expands the applications range of PIV systems, in particular for measurement tasks with severe time constraints.