Calibration of laser range finders based on moving object tracking in Intelligent Space

In this research, we address the calibration of laser range finders distributed in intelligent space (iSpace) which is a space with multiple embedded and networked sensors and actuators. In order to realize automated calibration, we utilize the mobile robots in the space. The mobility of mobile robots allows us to cover wide areas of the environment without placing many landmarks in the exact positions beforehand. The calibration is performed based on the positions of the mobile robots in world coordinate system and their corresponding points in local coordinate system. We also extend this approach to utilize general moving objects such as humans and not limited to mobile robots. The relative position and orientation of sensors are calculated based on the tracking result of moving objects in overlapping observable areas of different sensors. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.