A volume and inertia estimating 3D scanner for solids

The volume, center of mass, and moments of inertia of solid objects are fundamental properties used in numerous engineering and industrial applications. The paper describes the development and testing of a simple, efficient and cost effective scanner capable of estimating the surface area, volume, center of volume and inertia properties of solid objects automatically, and with high accuracy. The scanner utilizes a servomotor controlled rotary table whose rotational motion is synchronized with distance measurements obtained from a set of ultrasonic sensors located at different heights around the scanned solid. The derivation of the formulas allowing the transformation of contour coordinates to geometric properties, and their utilization in the property estimation is described. Volume and inertia estimates obtained from the scanner are presented and compared with those obtained from metrological methods.