Autocalibration of Camera Extrinsics Using Aircraft Approach and Landing Imagery

Asta Wu, Hayes Edwards, and Grace Gao

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Autolanding technologies are gaining interest as aids for pilots during one of the most challenging segments of flight. Many such technologies use vision-based localization techniques. The accuracy of these techniques are dependent on precise calibration of the camera extrinsics parameters, which define how the camera is mounted on the aircraft. Because traditional calibration methods often utilize specialized equipment and require the aircraft to be taken out of service, autocalibration is an attractive alternative. As a first step towards airplane camera autocalibration, we propose two autocalibration frameworks using perspective-n-point and factor-graph optimization, respectively. We analyze the calibration performance of the two methods on real-world approach and landing sensor measurements and images, finding that the factor-graph method reaches sub-meter and sub-degree calibration accuracies.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025) September 8 - 12, 2025 Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor Baltimore, Maryland
Pages:	1881 - 1892
Cite this article:	Wu, Asta, Edwards, Hayes, Gao, Grace, "Autocalibration of Camera Extrinsics Using Aircraft Approach and Landing Imagery," Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2025, pp. 1881-1892. https://doi.org/10.33012/2025.20422
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