The 3-point resection problem in photogrammetry

Abstract

This paper provides a simple solution to the three-point resection problem in photogrammetry. It is based on Grunert's (1841) closed form solution but uses the Newton-Raphson iteration procedure, and its desirable property of quadratic convergence, to solve the quartic equation. The proposed solution is superior to closed-form solutions with multiple roots. Although four-point closed form formulas also exist to define a unique solution, they are quite complex.