Ground truth for evaluating 6 degrees of freedom pose estimation systems

Systems developed to estimate poses of objects in 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF) Cartesian space (X, Y, and Z coordinates plus roll, pitch, and yaw) are reliant on the vendors' own processes to determine performance and measurement accuracy. These practices are not yet standardized, and are rarely reported by the vendors in sufficient detail to enable users and integrators to recreate the process. Efforts must therefore be made to enable the documented and, more importantly, independently repeatable evaluation of such systems using standardized processes, fixtures, and artifacts. In this paper, we describe three 6DOF ground truth systems utilized at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): a laser-tracker-based system for pose measurement, an aluminum fixture-based system that can be used to set the pose of artifacts, and a modular, medium-density fiberboard (MDF) fixture system. Descriptions, characterizations, and measured accuracies of these systems are provided for reference.