Comparison between single and multi-camera view videogrammetry for estimating 6DOF of a rigid body

Motion capture (MOCAP) systems are used in many fields of application (e.g., machine vision, navigation, industrial measurements, medicine) for tracking and measuring the 6DOF (Degrees-Of-Freedom) of bodies. A variety of systems has been developed in the commercial, as well as research domain, exploiting different sensors and techniques, among which optical methods, based on multi-epoch photogrammetry, are the most common. The authors have developed an off-line low-cost MOCAP system made up of three consumer-grade video cameras, i.e. a multi-view camera system. The system was employed in two different case studies for measuring the motion of personnel working onboard a fishing boat and of a ship model in a towing tank (or model basin) subjected to different sea conditions. In this contribution, the same three single cameras are separately processed to evaluate the performances of a sequential space resection method for estimated the 6DOF of a rigid body (a ship model during high frequency tests in a model basin). The results from each video camera are compared with the motion estimated using the multi-view approach, with the aim of providing a quantitative assessment of the performances obtainable.