On-Site Calibration Method for Line-Structured Light Sensor-Based Railway Wheel Size Measurement System

Abstract

Line-structured light has been widely used in the field of railway measurement, owing to its high capability of anti-interference, fast scanning speed and high accuracy. Traditional calibration methods of line-structured light sensors have the disadvantages of long calibration time and complicated calibration process, which is not suitable for railway field application. In this paper, a fast calibration method based on a self-developed calibration device was proposed. Compared with traditional methods, the calibration process is simplified and the calibration time is greatly shortened. This method does not need to extract light strips; thus, the influence of ambient light on the measurement is reduced. In addition, the calibration error resulting from the misalignment was corrected by epipolar constraint, and the calibration accuracy was improved. Calibration experiments in laboratory and field tests were conducted to verify the effectiveness of this method, and the results showed that the proposed method can achieve a better calibration accuracy compared to a traditional calibration method based on Zhang’s method.