Articulated Laser Sensor for Three-Dimensional Precision Measurement

Abstract

Breaking through the orthogonal shafting architecture of traditional measurement instruments, a novel articulated laser sensor for three-dimensional (3D) precision measurement is proposed. The novel sensor consists of two articulated laser sensing modules, and each module is mainly made up of two one-dimensional rotary tables and one collimated laser to achieve a flexible angle intersection. Moreover, a high-resolution digital camera is mounted on the right sensing module to achieve vision guidance. The three axes of each sensing module represent a non-orthogonal shafting architecture. The requirements of structural design, material selection, processing technology, assembling, calibration and maintain are greatly lowered. The costs are greatly reduced, including time and money. The system architecture, parameter calibration and measurement principle are elaborated. An accurate intersection model of two laser beams is proposed to calculate the accurate rotation angles of rotary tables by discrete point interpolation method. The experimental results showed that a maximum error less than 0.05 mm was detected from 100 mm to 500 mm. It is proved that 3D precision measurement is feasible with this proposed articulated laser sensor.