High-precision pose measurement of containers on the transfer platform of the dual-trolley quayside container crane based on machine vision

Abstract

To address the high-precision measurement requirements for container pose on dual-trolley quayside crane-transfer platforms, this paper proposes a machine vision-based measurement method that resolves the challenges of multi-scale lockhole detection and precision demands caused by complex illumination and perspective deformation in port operational environments. A hardware system comprising fixed cameras and edge computing modules is established, integrated with an adaptive image-enhancement preprocessing algorithm to enhance feature robustness under complex illumination conditions. A multi-scale adaptive frequency object-detection framework is developed based on YOLO11, achieving improved detection accuracy for multi-scale lockhole keypoints in perspective-distortion scenarios (mAP@0.5 reaches 95.1%, 4.7% higher than baseline models) through dynamic balancing of high–low-frequency features and adaptive convolution kernel adjustments. An enhanced EPnP optimization algorithm incorporating lockhole coplanar constraints is proposed, establishing a 2D–3D coordinate transformation model that reduces pose-estimation errors to millimeter level (planar MAE-P = 0.024 m) and sub-angular level (MAE-0 = 0.11°). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing solutions in container pose-deviation-detection accuracy, efficiency, and stability, proving to be a feasible measurement approach.