Surface coordinate measurement using un-calibrated cameras and laser pointer equipped robot manipulator

This paper presents a new method to measure three-dimensional coordinate data, corresponding to any pixel of a camera. The system configuration includes multiple un-calibrated cameras, a laser pointer, and a manipulator. The manipulator can control the orientation and position of the laser pointer, and the laser beam spot on the surface can be observed by each camera. Based on the visual servo algorithm, the proposed method generates different laser lines which the observation of these laser spots matches the desired pixel indices for each camera. The intersection of multiple lines is the measurement of the surface point. The simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of the measurement and test the influence of several parameters. The real experiment for measuring the position of corners in a chessboard is implemented.