Experimental validation of an open-source low-cost single-camera 6-DOF tracking of floating-body motion in wave tanks
Abstract
Accurately measuring motion of floating structures in experimental settings is both important and non-trivial. In this paper, we present a single-camera, 6-degree-of-freedom motion-tracking system that is both low-cost and simple to set up for an experimental campaign. The system uses fiducial markers and open-source computer vision tools to estimate the positions and orientations of multi-marker geometries and track them. We validate the accuracy and limitations on a precisely controlled linear actuator with static, regular, and irregular motion. The performance is quantified depending on both the camera-to-marker distance and direction of motion relative to the camera plane. Additionally, we present a practical use case for our system in a wave tank. Although the motion direction perpendicular to the camera plane shows the highest errors, the system achieves sub-millimeter accuracy at short and moderate camera-to-marker distances. For the irregular motion validation, the best cases reproduced the displacements with an RMSE of approximately 0.5 mm. Overall, the results indicate that low-cost single-camera fiducial-marker tracking can provide sufficiently accurate, non-intrusive motion measurements for a range of hydrodynamic laboratory experiments.
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BibTeX
@misc{meyer2026experimental,
title = {{Experimental validation of an open-source low-cost single-camera 6-DOF tracking of floating-body motion in wave tanks}},
author = {Herman Martens Meyer and Paul Fromont and Øystein Lande and Atle Jensen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.03241},
eprint = {2608.03241},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.03241},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Experimental validation of an open-source low-cost single-camera 6-DOF tracking of floating-body motion in wave tanks
AU - Herman Martens Meyer
AU - Paul Fromont
AU - Øystein Lande
AU - Atle Jensen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.03241
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.03241
AB - Accurately measuring motion of floating structures in experimental settings is both important and non-trivial. In this paper, we present a single-camera, 6-degree-of-freedom motion-tracking system that is both low-cost and simple to set up for an experimental campaign. The system uses fiducial markers and open-source computer vision tools to estimate the positions and orientations of multi-marker geometries and track them. We validate the accuracy and limitations on a precisely controlled linear actuator with static, regular, and irregular motion. The performance is quantified depending on both the camera-to-marker distance and direction of motion relative to the camera plane. Additionally, we present a practical use case for our system in a wave tank. Although the motion direction perpendicular to the camera plane shows the highest errors, the system achieves sub-millimeter accuracy at short and moderate camera-to-marker distances. For the irregular motion validation, the best cases reproduced the displacements with an RMSE of approximately 0.5 mm. Overall, the results indicate that low-cost single-camera fiducial-marker tracking can provide sufficiently accurate, non-intrusive motion measurements for a range of hydrodynamic laboratory experiments.
ER -