Calibration for increased accuracy of the range imaging camera SwissRanger

Range imaging is a new suitable choice for measurement and modeling in many different applications. But due to the technology’s relatively new appearance on the market with a few different realizations, the knowledge of its capabilities is very low. In most applications, like robotics and measurement systems, the accuracy wanted, lies at some millimeters. The raw data of range imaging cameras do not reach this level. Therefore, the calibration of the sensors output is needed. In this paper some of the parameters which influence the behavior and performance of the range imaging camera SwissRanger (provided by the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology CSEM) are described. Because of the highly systematic structure and correlations between parameters and output data, a parameter based calibration approach is presented. This includes a photogrammetric camera calibration and a distance system calibration with respect to the reflectivity and the distance itself.