Stability of relative orientation

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of the deviation of measured points from the standard locations when carrying out a relative orientation of a stereomodel. The analytical solution of more than 100 cases was considered and, for each case, the weights for the elements of relative orientation and the correlation coefficients were evaluated. The stability of the solution was studied by calculating the characteristic roots of the matrix of normal equations.

It is shown that, theoretically, the solution of the relative orientation problem can always be achieved whenever the locations of the measured points satisfy stated geometrical requirements. However, the reliability of the solution depends on their exact positions in the stereomodel. When the accuracy is too low, in practice there is no solution.