Real Time Pose Estimation
Real Time Pose Estimation
Nowadays, augmented reality is one of the top research topic in computer vision and robotics fields. The most elemental problem in augmented reality is the
estimation of the camera pose respect of an object in the case of computer vision area to do later some 3D rendering or in the case of robotics obtain an
object pose in order to grasp it and do some manipulation. However, this is not a trivial problem to solve due to the fact that the most common issue in image
processing is the computational cost of applying a lot of algorithms or mathematical operations for solving a problem which is basic and immediateley for
humans.
Goal
In this tutorial is explained how to build a real time application to estimate the camera pose in order to track a textured object with six degrees of freedom
given a 2D image and its 3D textured model.
Theory
In computer vision estimate the camera pose from n 3D-to-2D point correspondences is a fundamental and well understood problem. The most general
version of the problem requires estimating the six degrees of freedom of the pose and five calibration parameters: focal length, principal point, aspect ratio and
skew. It could be established with a minimum of 6 correspondences, using the well known Direct Linear Transform (DLT) algorithm. There are, though, several
simplifications to the problem which turn into an extensive list of different algorithms that improve the accuracy of the DLT.
The most common simplification is to assume known calibration parameters which is the so-called Perspective-*n*-Point problem:
Problem Formulation: Given a set of correspondences between 3D points pi expressed in a world reference frame, and their 2D projections ui onto the
image, we seek to retrieve the pose ( R and t) of the camera w.r.t. the world and the focal length f .
OpenCV provides four different approaches to solve the Perspective-*n*-Point problem which return R and t. Then, using the following formula it's possible to
project 3D points into the image plane:
⎡X⎤
⎡ u ⎤ ⎡ fx 0 cx ⎤ ⎡ r11 r12 r13 t1 ⎤ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥⎢Y ⎥
s ⎢v⎥ = ⎢0 fy cy ⎥ ⎢ r21 r22 r23 t2 ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ ⎥
t3 ⎦ ⎢ ⎥
Z
⎣1⎦ ⎣ 0 0 1 ⎦ ⎣ r31 r32 r33
⎣1⎦
The complete documentation of how to manage with this equations is in Camera Calibration and 3D Reconstruction .
Source code
You can find the source code of this tutorial in the samples/cpp/tutorial_code/calib3d/real_time_pose_estimation/ folder of the OpenCV source library.
1 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
1. Model registration
This applicaton is exclusive to whom don't have a 3D textured model of the object to be detected. You can use this program to create your own textured
3D model. This program only works for planar objects, then if you want to model an object with complex shape you should use a sophisticated software
to create it.
The application needs an input image of the object to be registered and its 3D mesh. We have also to provide the intrinsic parameters of the camera
with which the input image was taken. All the files need to be specified using the absolute path or the relative one from your application’s working
directory. If none files are specified the program will try to open the provided default parameters.
The application starts up extracting the ORB features and descriptors from the input image and then uses the mesh along with the Möller–Trumbore
intersection algorithm to compute the 3D coordinates of the found features. Finally, the 3D points and the descriptors are stored in different lists in a file
with YAML format which each row is a different point. The technical background on how to store the files can be found in the File Input and Output
using XML and YAML files tutorial.
2. Model detection
The aim of this application is estimate in real time the object pose given its 3D textured model.
The application starts up loading the 3D textured model in YAML file format with the same structure explained in the model registration program. From
the scene, the ORB features and descriptors are detected and extracted. Then, is used cv::FlannBasedMatcher with cv::flann::GenericIndex to do
the matching between the scene descriptors and the model descriptors. Using the found matches along with cv::solvePnPRansac function the R and t
of the camera are computed. Finally, a KalmanFilter is applied in order to reject bad poses.
In the case that you compiled OpenCV with the samples, you can find it in opencv/build/bin/cpp-tutorial-pnp_detection`. Then you can run the
application and change some parameters:
This program shows how to detect an object given its 3D textured model. You can choose to use a recorded video or
the webcam.
Usage:
./cpp-tutorial-pnp_detection -help
Keys:
'esc' - to quit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage: cpp-tutorial-pnp_detection [params]
-c, --confidence (value:0.95)
RANSAC confidence
-e, --error (value:2.0)
RANSAC reprojection errror
-f, --fast (value:true)
use of robust fast match
-h, --help (value:true)
print this message
--in, --inliers (value:30)
minimum inliers for Kalman update
--it, --iterations (value:500)
RANSAC maximum iterations count
-k, --keypoints (value:2000)
number of keypoints to detect
--mesh
path to ply mesh
--method, --pnp (value:0)
PnP method: (0) ITERATIVE - (1) EPNP - (2) P3P - (3) DLS
--model
path to yml model
-r, --ratio (value:0.7)
threshold for ratio test
-v, --video
path to recorded video
For example, you can run the application changing the pnp method:
./cpp-tutorial-pnp_detection --method=2
Explanation
Here is explained in detail the code for the real time application:
In order to load the textured model I implemented the class Model which has the function load() that opens a YAML file and take the stored 3D points
with its corresponding descriptors. You can find an example of a 3D textured model in samples/cpp/tutorial_code/calib3d
/real_time_pose_estimation/Data/cookies_ORB.yml.
2 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
{
cv::Mat points3d_mat;
cv::FileStorage storage(path, cv::FileStorage::READ);
storage["points_3d"] >> points3d_mat;
storage["descriptors"] >> descriptors_;
points3d_mat.copyTo(list_points3d_in_);
storage.release();
}
In order to read the model mesh I implemented a class Mesh which has a function load() that opens a ∗ .ply file and store the 3D points of the object
and also the composed triangles. You can find an example of a model mesh in samples/cpp/tutorial_code/calib3d/real_time_pose_estimation
/Data/box.ply.
To detect is necessary capture video. It's done loading a recorded video by passing the absolute path where it is located in your machine. In order to
test the application you can find a recorded video in samples/cpp/tutorial_code/calib3d/real_time_pose_estimation/Data/box.mp4.
./cpp-tutorial-pnp_detection --video=/absolute_path_to_your_video.mp4
3. Extract ORB features and descriptors from the scene
The next step is to detect the scene features and extract it descriptors. For this task I implemented a class RobustMatcher which has a function for
keypoints detection and features extraction. You can find it in samples/cpp/tutorial_code/calib3d/real_time_pose_estimation
/src/RobusMatcher.cpp. In your RobusMatch object you can use any of the 2D features detectors of OpenCV. In this case I used cv::ORB features
because is based on cv::FAST to detect the keypoints and cv::xfeatures2d::BriefDescriptorExtractor to extract the descriptors which means that is
fast and robust to rotations. You can find more detailed information about ORB in the documentation.
The following code is how to instantiate and set the features detector and the descriptors extractor:
3 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
The features and descriptors will be computed by the RobustMatcher inside the matching function.
It is the first step in our detection algorithm. The main idea is to match the scene descriptors with our model descriptors in order to know the 3D
coordinates of the found features into the current scene.
Firstly, we have to set which matcher we want to use. In this case is used cv::FlannBasedMatcher matcher which in terms of computational cost is
faster than the cv::BFMatcher matcher as we increase the trained collectction of features. Then, for FlannBased matcher the index created is Multi-
Probe LSH: Efficient Indexing for High-Dimensional Similarity Search due to ORB descriptors are binary.
You can tune the LSH and search parameters to improve the matching efficiency:
Secondly, we have to call the matcher by using robustMatch() or fastRobustMatch() function. The difference of using this two functions is its
computational cost. The first method is slower but more robust at filtering good matches because uses two ratio test and a symmetry test. In contrast,
the second method is faster but less robust because only applies a single ratio test to the matches.
The following code is to get the model 3D points and its descriptors and then call the matcher in the main program:
The following code corresponds to the robustMatch() function which belongs to the RobustMatcher class. This function uses the given image to detect
the keypoints and extract the descriptors, match using two Nearest Neighbour the extracted descriptors with the given model descriptors and vice
versa. Then, a ratio test is applied to the two direction matches in order to remove these matches which its distance ratio between the first and second
best match is larger than a given threshold. Finally, a symmetry test is applied in order the remove non symmetrical matches.
After the matches filtering we have to subtract the 2D and 3D correspondences from the found scene keypoints and our 3D model using the obtained
DMatches vector. For more information about cv::DMatch check the documentation.
4 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
You can also change the ratio test threshold, the number of keypoints to detect as well as use or not the robust matcher:
Once with the 2D and 3D correspondences we have to apply a PnP algorithm in order to estimate the camera pose. The reason why we have to use
cv::solvePnPRansac instead of cv::solvePnP is due to the fact that after the matching not all the found correspondences are correct and, as like as
not, there are false correspondences or also called outliers. The Random Sample Consensus or Ransac is a non-deterministic iterative method which
estimate parameters of a mathematical model from observed data producing an aproximate result as the number of iterations increase. After appyling
Ransac all the outliers will be eliminated to then estimate the camera pose with a certain probability to obtain a good solution.
For the camera pose estimation I have implemented a class PnPProblem. This class has 4 atributes: a given calibration matrix, the rotation matrix, the
translation matrix and the rotation-translation matrix. The intrinsic calibration parameters of the camera which you are using to estimate the pose are
necessary. In order to obtain the parameters you can check Camera calibration with square chessboard and Camera calibration With OpenCV
tutorials.
The following code is how to declare the PnPProblem class in the main program:
The following code is how the PnPProblem class initialises its atributes:
OpenCV provides four PnP methods: ITERATIVE, EPNP, P3P and DLS. Depending on the application type, the estimation method will be different. In
the case that we want to make a real time application, the more suitable methods are EPNP and P3P due to that are faster than ITERATIVE and DLS
at finding an optimal solution. However, EPNP and P3P are not especially robust in front of planar surfaces and sometimes the pose estimation seems
to have a mirror effect. Therefore, in this this tutorial is used ITERATIVE method due to the object to be detected has planar surfaces.
The OpenCV Ransac implementation wants you to provide three parameters: the maximum number of iterations until stop the algorithm, the maximum
allowed distance between the observed and computed point projections to consider it an inlier and the confidence to obtain a good result. You can tune
these paramaters in order to improve your algorithm performance. Increasing the number of iterations you will have a more accurate solution, but will
take more time to find a solution. Increasing the reprojection error will reduce the computation time, but your solution will be unaccurate. Decreasing the
confidence your arlgorithm will be faster, but the obtained solution will be unaccurate.
// RANSAC parameters
int iterationsCount = 500; // number of Ransac iterations.
float reprojectionError = 2.0; // maximum allowed distance to consider it an inlier.
float confidence = 0.95; // ransac successful confidence.
The following code corresponds to the estimatePoseRANSAC() function which belongs to the PnPProblem class. This function estimates the rotation
and translation matrix given a set of 2D/3D correspondences, the desired PnP method to use, the output inliers container and the Ransac parameters:
// Estimate the pose given a list of 2D/3D correspondences with RANSAC and the method to use
void PnPProblem::estimatePoseRANSAC( const std::vector<cv::Point3f> &list_points3d, // list with model 3D
coordinates
const std::vector<cv::Point2f> &list_points2d, // list with scene 2D
coordinates
int flags, cv::Mat &inliers, int iterationsCount, // PnP method; inliers
container
float reprojectionError, float confidence ) // Ransac parameters
{
cv::Mat distCoeffs = cv::Mat::zeros(4, 1, CV_64FC1); // vector of distortion coefficients
cv::Mat rvec = cv::Mat::zeros(3, 1, CV_64FC1); // output rotation vector
cv::Mat tvec = cv::Mat::zeros(3, 1, CV_64FC1); // output translation vector
bool useExtrinsicGuess = false; // if true the function uses the provided rvec and tvec values as
// initial approximations of the rotation and translation vectors
cv::solvePnPRansac( list_points3d, list_points2d, _A_matrix, distCoeffs, rvec, tvec,
useExtrinsicGuess, iterationsCount, reprojectionError, confidence,
inliers, flags );
5 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
In the following code are the 3th and 4th steps of the main algorithm. The first, calling the above function and the second taking the output inliers vector
from Ransac to get the 2D scene points for drawing purpose. As seen in the code we must be sure to apply Ransac if we have matches, in the other
case, the function cv::solvePnPRansac crashes due to any OpenCV bug.
Finally, once the camera pose has been estimated we can use the R and t in order to compute the 2D projection onto the image of a given 3D point
expressed in a world reference frame using the showed formula on Theory.
The following code corresponds to the backproject3DPoint() function which belongs to the PnPProblem class. The function backproject a given 3D point
expressed in a world reference frame onto a 2D image:
The above function is used to compute all the 3D points of the object Mesh to show the pose of the object.
Is it common in computer vision or robotics fields that after applying detection or tracking techniques, bad results are obtained due to some sensor
errors. In order to avoid these bad detections in this tutorial is explained how to implement a Linear Kalman Filter. The Kalman Filter will be applied after
detected a given number of inliers.
You can find more information about what Kalman Filter is. In this tutorial it's used the OpenCV implementation of the cv::KalmanFilter based on
Linear Kalman Filter for position and orientation tracking to set the dynamics and measurement models.
Firstly, we have to define our state vector which will have 18 states: the positional data (x,y,z) with its first and second derivatives (velocity and
acceleration), then rotation is added in form of three euler angles (roll, pitch, jaw) together with their first and second derivatives (angular velocity and
acceleration)
X = (x, y, z, ẋ, ẏ, ż, ẍ, ÿ, z̈, ψ, θ, ϕ, ψ̇ , θ̇, ϕ̇, ψ̈ , θ̈, ϕ̈)T
Secondly, we have to define the number of measuremnts which will be 6: from R and t we can extract (x, y, z) and (ψ, θ, ϕ) . In addition, we have to
define the number of control actions to apply to the system which in this case will be zero. Finally, we have to define the differential time between
measurements which in this case is 1/T, where T is the frame rate of the video.
The following code corresponds to the Kalman Filter initialisation. Firstly, is set the process noise, the measurement noise and the error covariance
matrix. Secondly, are set the transition matrix which is the dynamic model and finally the measurement matrix, which is the measurement model.
6 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
You can tune the process and measurement noise to improve the Kalman Filter performance. As the measurement noise is reduced the faster will
converge doing the algorithm sensitive in front of bad measurements.
void initKalmanFilter(cv::KalmanFilter &KF, int nStates, int nMeasurements, int nInputs, double dt)
{
KF.init(nStates, nMeasurements, nInputs, CV_64F); // init Kalman Filter
cv::setIdentity(KF.processNoiseCov, cv::Scalar::all(1e-5)); // set process noise
cv::setIdentity(KF.measurementNoiseCov, cv::Scalar::all(1e-4)); // set measurement noise
cv::setIdentity(KF.errorCovPost, cv::Scalar::all(1)); // error covariance
/* DYNAMIC MODEL */
// [1 0 0 dt 0 0 dt2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 dt2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 dt2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 dt2 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 dt2 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0 dt2]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 dt]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1]
// position
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(0,3) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(1,4) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(2,5) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(3,6) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(4,7) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(5,8) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(0,6) = 0.5*pow(dt,2);
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(1,7) = 0.5*pow(dt,2);
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(2,8) = 0.5*pow(dt,2);
// orientation
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(9,12) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(10,13) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(11,14) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(12,15) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(13,16) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(14,17) = dt;
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(9,15) = 0.5*pow(dt,2);
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(10,16) = 0.5*pow(dt,2);
KF.transitionMatrix.at<double>(11,17) = 0.5*pow(dt,2);
/* MEASUREMENT MODEL */
// [1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]
// [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0]
KF.measurementMatrix.at<double>(0,0) = 1; // x
KF.measurementMatrix.at<double>(1,1) = 1; // y
KF.measurementMatrix.at<double>(2,2) = 1; // z
KF.measurementMatrix.at<double>(3,9) = 1; // roll
KF.measurementMatrix.at<double>(4,10) = 1; // pitch
KF.measurementMatrix.at<double>(5,11) = 1; // yaw
}
In the following code is the 5th step of the main algorithm. When the obtained number of inliers after Ransac is over the threshold, the measurements
matrix is filled and then the Kalman Filter is updated:
The following code corresponds to the fillMeasurements() function which converts the measured Rotation Matrix to Eulers angles and fill the
measurements matrix along with the measured translation vector:
7 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
The following code corresponds to the updateKalmanFilter() function which update the Kalman Filter and set the estimated Rotation Matrix and
translation vector. The estimated Rotation Matrix comes from the estimated Euler angles to Rotation Matrix.
// Estimated translation
translation_estimated.at<double>(0) = estimated.at<double>(0);
translation_estimated.at<double>(1) = estimated.at<double>(1);
translation_estimated.at<double>(2) = estimated.at<double>(2);
// Estimated euler angles
cv::Mat eulers_estimated(3, 1, CV_64F);
eulers_estimated.at<double>(0) = estimated.at<double>(9);
eulers_estimated.at<double>(1) = estimated.at<double>(10);
eulers_estimated.at<double>(2) = estimated.at<double>(11);
// Convert estimated quaternion to rotation matrix
rotation_estimated = euler2rot(eulers_estimated);
}
The last and optional step is draw the found pose. To do it I implemented a function to draw all the mesh 3D points and an extra reference axis:
You can also modify the minimum inliers to update Kalman Filter:
./cpp-tutorial-pnp_detection --inliers=20
Results
The following videos are the results of pose estimation in real time using the explained detection algorithm using the following parameters:
// RANSAC parameters
int iterationsCount = 500; // number of Ransac iterations.
int reprojectionError = 2.0; // maximum allowed distance to consider it an inlier.
float confidence = 0.95; // ransac successful confidence.
You can watch the real time pose estimation on the YouTube here.
8 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM
OpenCV: Real Time pose estimation of a texture... https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.0/dc/d2c/tutorial_rea...
9 of 9 3/25/19, 12:19 PM