Kaliberré

Kaliberré is a calibration protocol used in sensor networks to align measurements across heterogeneous devices with varying characteristics. It targets drift, scale errors, and misalignment among sensors such as cameras, LiDAR, radar, and inertial measurement units, enabling consistent data fusion in dynamic environments.

Origin and scope: The term kaliberré emerged in the robotics and metrology literature in the early 2010s as a framework for continuous, software-driven calibration. It emphasizes iterative refinement, cross-modal consistency, and the ability to operate with intermittent supervision, making it suitable for field deployments where recalibration is impractical.

Core idea: Kaliberré combines a baseline calibration phase with ongoing, environment-aware adjustments. It maintains an inter-sensor alignment matrix, applies environmental compensation through adaptive models, and uses cross-sensor constraints to detect and correct drift. Validation is performed with reference targets or self-generated ground truth.

Applications and impact: Kaliberré is used in mobile robotics, autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, and industrial inspection. Practitioners report improved fusion accuracy, robustness to sensor drift, and reduced downtime for calibration. Variants of the approach cater to different sensor suites and computational budgets.

Limitations and challenges: The method adds computational overhead and requires careful selection of calibration targets or reference signals. It may be sensitive to non-overlapping sensor fields of view or non-stationary environments, and it relies on reliable initial calibration to converge successfully.