Design and Implementation of a Mobile and Elevating Panoramic Acquisition Platform

Abstract

Panoramic imaging is a new, rich media technology that provides an immersive user experience and has been widely used by large Internet companies. A panoramic acquisition platform is typically integrated with a vehicle carrier and installed by non-reversible means such as welding. The fixed height of the panoramic camera hinders panoramic photography on some roads because of the ever-changing surroundings. The aims of our study were to reduce the maintenance cost of the acquisition platform and obtain high-precision positioning information. Thus, we developed a detachable, elevating panoramic acquisition platform based on a highprecision positioning function. The developed platform was mainly composed of four parts: data acquisition, connection and fixation, support, and auxiliary control parts. The performance of the system was tested for different camera heights, and the installation and disassembly were found to be convenient, fast, and flexible. Moreover, the system overcame the height limitation imposed by overhead traffic facilities and adjusted the height of the panoramic camera in real time according to the heights of the targets. Additionally, through the coupling of multi-position sensors, the acquisition system obtained stable and high-precision shooting position information (at decimeter-level accuracy) as well as the panoramic platform attitude, speed, and other types of information required for diverse applications of panoramic images.