A Comparative Study of the Robustness of Two Pose Estimation Techniques

The paper presents an analysis of the stability of pose estimation. The stability is defined as sensitivity of the pose parameters towards noise in image features used for estimating pose. The specific emphasis of the analysis is on determining how the stability varies with viewpoint relative to an object, and to understand the relationships between object geometry, viewpoint and pose stability. Two pose estimation techniques are investigated. One uses a numerical scheme for finding pose parameters, the other is based on closed form solutions. Both are 'pose from tri-hedral vertices' techniques, which provide the rotation part of object pose based on orientations of three edge segments. The analysis is based on generalized sensitivity analysis propagating the uncertainty in edge segment orientations to the resulting effect on the pose parameters. It is shown that there is a pre-computable, generic relationship between viewpoint and pose stability, and that there is a drastic difference..