Low-cost Extrinsic Calibration Between LIDAR and Thermal Camera for Indoor Mapping

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Benjamin Ronald van Manen, Ville Lehtola, Abeje Yenehun Mersha, Francesco Nex

Published: 29 Oct 2025, Last Modified: 27 Feb 2026ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information SciencesEveryoneRevisionsCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: Articles | Volume X-2/W2-2025 ArticleMetricsRelated articles Articles | Volume X-2/W2-2025 https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-181-2025 © Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-181-2025 © Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Articles | Volume X-2/W2-2025 ArticleMetricsRelated articles 29 Oct 2025 | 29 Oct 2025 Low-cost Extrinsic Calibration Between LIDAR and Thermal Camera for Indoor Mapping Benjamin Ronald van Manen, Ville Lehtola, Abeje Yenehun Mersha, and Francesco Nex Benjamin Ronald van Manen × Academy of Life Science, Engineering And Design, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Enschede, The Netherlands Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Ville Lehtola × Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Abeje Yenehun Mersha × Academy of Life Science, Engineering And Design, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Enschede, The Netherlands Francesco Nex https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5712-6902 × Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Keywords: Extrinsic calibration, Thermal camera, LIDAR, UGV, UXV, Mapping Abstract. Building on the concept of LIDAR–RGB extrinsic calibration using simple box targets (Pusztai and Hajder, 2017), we propose a low-cost and effective method for extrinsic calibration between a thermal camera and a LIDAR. Our approach utilizes a single, inverted half-box target featuring a heated asymmetric circles grid on one of its planes, designed for high visibility in thermal imagery. Thermal camera poses are estimated using OpenCV’s calibration toolbox, while LIDAR poses are computed by extracting the three planar surfaces of the calibration target. The extrinsic transformation between the thermal camera and the LIDAR is then determined using a cycle consistency constraint. We evaluate the method in terms of calibration accuracy and precision. Additionally, the setup can be used to assess the time synchronization between the thermal and LIDAR data streams by visualizing the projection errors on dynamic scene elements. Additional results can be found in the video at youtu.be/0ODHZe4rVec. The source code is available at github.com/SaxionMechatronics/CycleCameraLiDARCalibration. Download & links Article (PDF, 2582 KB) Download & links Article (2582 KB) Metadata XML BibTeX EndNote Share document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { const mobileShareElement = document.querySelector(".mobile-native-share"); if (navigator.share) { // Native sharing is available if (mobileShareElement) { mobileShareElement.style.display = "block"; } } else { // Native sharing is NOT available if (mobileShareElement) { mobileShareElement.style.display = "none"; } } }); How to cite. van Manen, B. R., Lehtola, V., Mersha, A. Y., and Nex, F.: Low-cost Extrinsic Calibration Between LIDAR and Thermal Camera for Indoor Mapping, ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., X-2/W2-2025, 181–188, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-181-2025, 2025.