Extrinsic calibration of RGB-D sensor and a robot using color chessboard

In this paper, we present a method for the extrinsic calibration of a robot and an RGB-D sensor using a color chessboard. The color pattern of red, green, and blue is used on a conventional gray chessboard to identify the coordinate frame under any pose of the chessboard. The chessboard is attached on the tool center point (TCP) of the robot, and the cross points of the chessboard are automatically detected for the extrinsic calibration. We compared the proposed method with the conventional method that uses a chessboard on the ground plane. The accuracy of extrinsic calibration was evaluated by checking the final location of a tip at the TCP of the robot. The proposed method exhibited improved accuracy for the entire working volume as compared to the conventional method.