Omnidirectional stereo camera for harsh radiation environments

We have been developing a stereo camera whose field of view is 360 degrees consisting of three hyperbolic mirrors and a single camera, which makes this camera compact and inexpensive. The hyperbolic mirrors enable the omnidirectional view and combining three of them makes it possible to obtain images from two different viewpoints, which are used to measure distances based on the stereo vision principle. By adopting a radiation-tolerant camera (250 kilo pixels) as the single camera, this stereo camera becomes a sensing device suitable for robot operation in harsh radiation environments. The prototype measures approximately 360 millimeters in height and achieves a distance measurement error of less than 5% for objects 1.5 meters apart.