Efficiency Analysis of Photogrammetric System by Simulation Modelling

Abstract

We developed a universal simulation model of photogrammetric systems that utilizes articial target points and ducial marks (coded targets). The model allows to analyze the eciency of the system in particular, measurement errors as well as system performance (scalability). Simulation modeling allows to estimate how dierent factors inuence the measurement error and the performance of the system. It also allows to vary the values of factors easily and in a broad range. It reduces organizational, time, and nancial cost of the testing system as well. We have implement the proposed simulation model in several congurations with GNU Octave. We have also run a series of simulation experiments, thus estimating how the measurement error of the system depends on errors in various input factors. It was determined that the measurement error of pixel coordinates of circle targets is the key factor that inuences the resulting measurement error of targets' 3D coordinates. Other factors, such as deviations of the parameters of the camera model from its initial calibrations, or uncertainties in estimation of cameras' initial pose, do not inuence the resulting measurement error signicantly due to eect of system automatic calibration. We have also estimated the impact of the linear size and instrument error of scale bar on system accuracy. The proposed simulation model may be also used for the verication of various algorithms in the eld of computer vision in conditions that are hard to implement during the process of natural experiments.