Extrinsic calibration of imaging sensing devices and 2d lidars mounted on transportable apparatus

Apparatus adapted to determine extrinsic calibration parameters for at least one pair of sensing devices mounted on transportable apparatus, the apparatus including:

• an image generating sensing device of the pair for, in use, producing image data representing a plurality of images captured at a series of poses during motion through an environment by transportable apparatus;
• a 2D LIDAR sensing device of the pair for, in use, producing laser data during the motion through the environment by the transportable apparatus;
• a device configured to generate 3D point cloud data based on the laser data;
• a device configured to select an image from the image data, the image being captured by the image generating sensing device at a particular said pose;
• a device configured to generate a laser reflectance image based on a portion of the 3D point cloud data corresponding to the particular pose of the image generating sensing device;
• a device configured to compute a metric indicating a measure of alignment between the selected image and the corresponding laser reflectance image;
• and
• a device configured to use the metric to determine extrinsic calibration parameters for at least one of the sensing devices.

A computer program product encoding instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a process to be carried out for determining extrinsic calibration parameters for at least one pair of sensing devices mounted on transportable apparatus, the process including:

• obtaining image data representing a plurality of images captured by an image generating sensing device of the pair at a series of poses during motion through an environment of transportable apparatus;
• obtaining data representing a 3D point cloud based on data produced by a 2D LIDAR sensing device of the pair during the motion through the environment of the transportable apparatus;
• selecting an image from the image data, the image being captured by the image generating sensing device at a particular said pose;
• generating a laser reflectance image based on a portion of the 3D point cloud data corresponding to the particular pose of the image generating sensing device;
• computing a metric indicating a measure of alignment between the selected image and the corresponding laser reflectance image;
• and
• using the metric to determine extrinsic calibration parameters for at least one of the sensing devices.