公开(公告)号：US06731382B2

公开(公告)日：2004-05-04

申请号：US09928453

申请日：2001-08-14

申请人： David A. Jackson ,  Steven Glickman ,  Hoshang D. Shroff ,  Brian M. Bliven ,  Michael J. Kling, III

发明人： David A. Jackson ,  Steven Glickman ,  Hoshang D. Shroff ,  Brian M. Bliven ,  Michael J. Kling, III

IPC分类号： G01B1126

CPC分类号： G01B11/2755 ,  G01B2210/12 ,  G01B2210/143 ,  G01B2210/26 ,  G01B2210/30 ,  G01B2210/303

摘要： Techniques are disclosed for providing a system that has a plurality of devices in which the position of a device of the plurality of devices relative to another device of the plurality of devices is self-calibrated. In one embodiment, the system is a five-camera aligner for use in aligning motor vehicle wheels. In this embodiment, the aligner includes a first camera pod having two alignment cameras and a calibration camera, and a second camera pod having another two alignment cameras and a calibration target. Because the aligner has four alignment cameras and a calibration camera, the aligner is often referred to as a five-camera aligner. For illustration purposes, the first camera pod is herein referred to as the left camera pod and the second camera pod is herein referred to as the right camera pod. In one embodiment, the left camera pod is placed to the left of the aligner, and the right camera pod is placed to the right of the aligner. The two alignment cameras of the left camera pod focus at the two left wheels of the vehicle under alignment, while the two alignment cameras of the right camera pod focus at the two right wheels of the same vehicle. In addition, the calibration camera on the left pod focuses at the calibration target mounted in the right camera pod. In one embodiment, the relative positions of the elements (alignment camera, calibration camera, and calibration target) in each camera pod are pre-calibrated. Consequently, the aligner is fully calibrated when the position of the left camera pod to the right camera pod is measured. Further, the calibration camera is configured such that it periodically measures the position of the left camera pod relative to the right camera pod, rendering the aligner a self-calibrated aligner.

摘要翻译： 公开了用于提供具有多个设备的系统的技术，其中多个设备中的设备相对于多个设备中的另一设备的位置是自校准的。 在一个实施例中，该系统是用于对准机动车辆车轮的五摄像机对准器。 在该实施例中，对准器包括具有两个对准摄像机和校准摄像机的第一摄像机舱，以及具有另外两个对准摄像机和校准目标的第二摄像机舱。 由于对准器具有四个对准摄像机和校准摄像机，对准器通常被称为五摄像机对准器。 为了说明的目的，第一相机荚在本文中被称为左相机荚，并且第二相机荚在本文中被称为右相机荚。 在一个实施例中，左摄像机盒被放置在对准器的左侧，并且右摄像机盒被放置在对准器的右侧。 左摄像机舱的两个对准摄像机聚焦在对准的车辆的两个左轮，而右摄像机舱的两个对准摄像机聚焦在同一车辆的两个右轮上。 此外，左侧插座上的校准摄像机可将焦点放在安装在右侧摄像机盒中的校准目标上。 在一个实施例中，每个照相机盒中的元件（对准摄像机，校准摄像机和校准目标）的相对位置被预校准。 因此，当测量左摄像机荚的位置到正确的摄像机荚时，对准器被完全校准。 此外，校准相机被配置为使得其周期性地测量左摄像机盒相对于右摄像机盒的位置，使对准器成为自校准对准器。