Analysis of orientation problems using Plucker lines

The problems of exterior, relative, and absolute orientation are analysed using Plucker lines with the aim of finding constraint equations less complex than those in conventional use, and thus facilitating more accurate computation of the unknowns. The equations of perspective projection are avoided by modelling image-forming rays as 3D lines. An unusual coplanarity constraint is found for exterior orientation. It contains the minimal number of unknowns (the elements of rotation only) and so can be used to solve for them with greater accuracy and fewer limitations than when translation and rotation are sought together