Integrated Process for Measurement of Free-Form Automotive Part Surface Using a Digital Area Sensor

This paper introduces a fully automated dimensional inspection (ADI) system using a digital area sensor. Instead of measuring a part surface point-by-point using a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), an ADI system can measure a part surface patch-by-patch. Therefore, the inspection time can be significantly reduced. Many existing sensor planners were developed for one or two cameras. In the proposed ADI system, the sensor planner is developed for a digital area sensor, which is made by a CCD camera and a digital projector. In application, sensor viewpoints are estimated automatically. On each viewpoint, thousands of points on part surfaces can be measured in only several seconds.