A Novel Plane-Based Probe Tip Calibration Method for Stereo Measurement and Navigation

This paper introduces a novel approach for calibrating the probe tip position by confining it on an unknown plane.A stereo-based camera system is utilized to track the six degrees of freedom (6DoF) of a rigid object equipped with markers.With the calibrated probe tip position, the stereo system can ascertain the location of the probe tip through a rigid transformation, even when the probe tip is visually obscured from view.This functionality is of vital importance in industrial measurement and surgical navigation applications, where the probe tips are frequently not visible to cameras.Existing calibration methods commonly involve confining the probe tip within a conical hole or on a spherical surface.In contrast, our proposed method merely requires a small planar surface that is readily accessible in production environments and costefficient to implement.Additionally, this approach exhibits significantly reduced susceptibility to shock and vibration due to the inherent invariance of planes along their surfaces.Experimental results suggest that our method attains an accuracy of 0.02 mm (RMS).This progress has significant implications for improving spatial positioning accuracy in surgical robots and navigation systems, thereby providing a theoretical basis for spatial registration before surgical procedures.