A Simple and Robust Approach to the Pose Estimation of Cylinders

Abstract

Extracting useful and robust feature points from a cylinder image for 3D pose estimation is a relatively difficult task, since there are no feature points (or lines) on cylinders. In this study, a key vector from a cylinder image is found to yield a transformation. The cylinder is then “reprojected” from the original image to obtain a new image using the transformation. The new image reveals some important features capable of estimating the 3D cylinder position easily and robustly, if the radius of the cylinder is available. The proposed method can yield an exact and analytical solution without the requirement of using any special marks, extra equipment or assumptions. Additionally, a problem in which both circles on the cylinder are not completely visible due to the viewing angle taken can be resolved by this method. Finally, experimental results are provided to verify the theory and show the robustness of our method.