A high-accuracy calibration method for fusion systems of millimeter-wave radar and camera

Multi-sensor information fusion is widely used in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles obstacle avoidance flight, particularly in millimeter-wave (MMW) radar and camera fusion systems. Calibration accuracy plays a crucial role in fusion systems. The low-angle measurement accuracy of the MMW radar usually causes large calibration errors. To reduce calibration errors, a high-accuracy calibration method based on a region of interest (ROI) and an artificial potential field was proposed in this paper. The ROI was selected based on the initial calibration information and the MMW radar’s angle measurement error range from the image. An artificial potential field was established using the pixels of the ROI. Two moving points were set at the left and right ends of the ROI initially. The potential forces of the two moving points are different because the pixels of the obstacle and the background are different in the image. The two moving points were iteratively moved towards each other according to the force until their distance was less than the iteration step. The new calibration point is located in the middle of the final position of the two moving points. In contrast to the existing calibration methods, the proposed method avoids the limitations of low angle measurement accuracy by using image pixels. The experimental results show that the calibration errors decrease by 83.95% and 75.79%, which is significantly improved compared to the traditional methods and indicates the efficiency of the proposed method.