Work information projection system and relative information calibration method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025284185-A1
Application number	US-202118280947-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 10, 2021
Priority date	Mar 10, 2021
Publication date	Sep 11, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

A work information projection system (1) includes a projector (12), a camera (14), and a controller. The projector (12) projects an auxiliary image (101) onto a workplace. The camera (14) captures the workplace. During a work, the controller controls the projector (12) based on a position of the projector (12) to project the auxiliary image onto the workplace. During a calibration process of calibrating relative information, the camera (14) captures a calibration image projected by the projector (12) onto a calibration jig (32) through a reflector (15). The controller performs the calibration process of calibrating the relative information based on the calibration image captured by the camera (14).

First claim

1 . A work information projection system, comprising:
a projector that projects an auxiliary image that assists work onto a workplace; a camera that captures the workplace; a memory; and a controller, connected to the memory, that creates the auxiliary image and transmits it to the projector, wherein, during a calibration process of calibrating relative information that indicates a relative positional relation between the camera and the projector: the camera captures a calibration image projected by the projector onto a calibration jig through a reflector, and the controller performs the calibration process of calibrating the relative information based on the calibration image captured by the camera.

2 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , wherein, during the work when the auxiliary image is projected onto the workplace:
the controller estimates a position of the camera based on an image captured by the camera, the controller estimates a position of the projector based on the relative information and the position of the camera, and the controller controls the projector based on the position of the projector to project the auxiliary image onto the workplace.

3 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , wherein the camera moves integrally with the projector.

4 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , during the work when the auxiliary image is projected onto the workplace, a direction of an optical axis of the camera is different form a direction of an optical axis of the projector.

5 . The work information projection system according to claim 4 , wherein during the work, the optical axis of the camera is not included in a range in which the projector can project projection light.

6 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , wherein a direction that the reflector faces in is changeable.

7 . The work information projection system according to claim 6 , wherein;
the direction that the reflector faces in is changeable between a first direction with which the camera can capture the calibration image projected by the projector and a second direction with which the camera cannot capture the auxiliary image projected by the projector.

8 . The work information projection system according to claim 7 , further comprising:
a driver that generates power to change the direction that the reflector faces in, wherein, during the work when the auxiliary image is projected onto the workplace: the camera captures the workplace through the reflector, and the controller changes the direction that the reflector faces in by controlling the driver when it determines that a number of feature points included in an image captured by the camera becomes less than a threshold.

9 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , wherein;
the camera captures the calibration image through the reflector during the calibration process, and the camera captures the workplace without the reflector during the work when the auxiliary image is projected onto the workplace.

10 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , wherein, during the calibration process:
the controller calculates a positional relation between the camera and the reflector based on the reflector included in an image captured by the camera, the controller calculates a positional relation between the camera and a virtual camera based on the positional relation between the camera and the reflector, and the controller calculates a positional relation between the projector and the virtual camera based on the calibration image reflected in the reflector and calibrates the relative information.

11 . The work information projection system according to claim 1 , wherein an optical axis of the camera is upward or downward with respect to a plane perpendicular to a vertical direction.

12 . A work information projection method, comprising:
capturing an image by a camera; calibrating relative information that indicates a positional relation between the camera and a projector; and projecting an auxiliary image onto a workplace using the projector that moves integrally with the camera, wherein the calibrating includes: projecting a calibration image onto a calibration jig by the projector; and capturing the calibration image through a reflector by the camera,; and a process of calibrating the relative information based on the calibration image captured by the camera.

13 . The work information projection method according to claim 12 , wherein;
the reflector is detachable, the calibrating is performed with the reflector attached, and the projecting the auxiliary image onto the workplace is performed with the reflector detached.

Assignees

• Kawasaki Heavy Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Eguchi Masahiro
• Okada Taiki
• Nakagawa Atsuki

Classifications

• G03B21/14

  Details · CPC title

• G03B17/54

  with projector · CPC title

• G03B21/56

  Projection screens · CPC title

• G03B29/00

  Combinations of cameras, projectors or photographic printing apparatus with non-photographic non-optical apparatus, e.g. clocks or weapons; Cameras having the shape of other objects (combinations with flash apparatus G03B15/03) · CPC title

• G03B21/147 Primary

  Optical correction of image distortions, e.g. keystone · CPC title