Actuation-Assisted Localization Of Distributed Camera Sensor Networks

External calibration of a camera sensor network to determine the relative location and orientation of the nodes is essential for effective usage. In prior research, cameras, identified by controllable light sources, utilized angular measurements among themselves to determine their relative positions and orientations. However, the typical camera's narrow field of view makes such systems susceptible to failure in the presence of occlusions or nonideal configurations. Actuation assistance helps to overcome such limitations by broadening each camera's view. In this chapter we discuss and implement a prototype system that uses actuation to aid in the external calibration of camera networks. We evaluate our system using simulations and a testbed of Sony PTZ cameras and MicaZ nodes, equipped with Cyclops camera modules mounted on custom pan-tilt platforms. Our results show that actuation assistance can dramatically reduce node density requirements for localization convergence.