Recursive estimation of structure and motion using relative orientation constraints

A recursive estimation technique for recovering the 3-D motion and pointwise structure of an object is presented. It is based on the use of relative orientation constraints in a local coordinate frame. By carefully formulating the problem to propagate all constraints and to use the minimal number of parameters, an estimator is obtained which is remarkably accurate, stable, and fast-conveying. Numerous experiments using both real and synthetic data demonstrate structure recovery with a typical error of 1.5% and typical motion recovery errors of 1% in translation and 2° in rotation