An Efficient Software Framework for Synchronizing RGB and Depth Cameras for Robotic Applications

Synchronizing RGB and ToF depth cameras is a critical challenge in RGB-D imaging systems due to differences in timestamps, exposure times and frame rates, leading to misaligned data and artifacts in 3D object reconstruction, which can impact various robotics applications. This paper proposes a novel software-based synchronization framework for time synchronization of RGB and depth camera streams by coordinating frame capture processes and managing timing disparities, eliminating the need for costly hardware solutions. A comparative analysis conducted on collected datasets demonstrates that the proposed framework achieves sub microsecond-level synchronization, ensuring accurate, artifact-free 3D reconstruction with consistent frame rates. The results confirm the efficiency of the proposed software framework, demonstrating its capability to achieve precise synchronization in RGB-D imaging systems.