Automatic One-Shot LiDAR Alignment Inspection System Using NIR Camera

• Published in: IEEE sensors journal Vol. 23; no. 7; pp. 7798 - 7805
• Main Authors: Song, Hyeong-Seok, Kim, Young-Keun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-04-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Alignment; Alignment inspection; Calibration; Cameras; Design for manufacturability; extrinsic calibration; Feature extraction; Infrared cameras; Infrared lasers; Inspection; Laser beams; Laser radar; Lidar; light detection and ranging (Lidar); near infrared (NIR) camera; Near infrared radiation; pose estimation; Sensors; Three dimensional models
• ISSN: 1530-437X; 1558-1748
• DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2023.3245219

In this study, we propose an accurate automatic light detection and ranging (LiDAR) alignment inspection system designed for manufacturing environments. The proposed inspection system is a single-shot, static method that uses a target system composed of a planar target with an near infrared (NIR) camera. Each laser beam spot projected on the target surface is segmented and located by analyzing the NIR images. We also propose a method to extract and match the corresponding beam feature points from the 3-D point cloud and NIR image. The correspondence points are used to estimate an extrinsic LiDAR pose related to the target frame, which is then converted into a pose relative to the vehicle's body. We validated the performance of the proposed system with experiments using a low-resolution LiDAR, and it exhibited an accuracy as high as 0.02° and 0.4 mm for rotation and translation alignment, respectively.