Non-contact scanning measurement utilizing a space mapping method

In this study, a novel approach to a measuring methodology and calibration method for an optical non-contact scanning probe system is proposed and verified by experiments. The optical probe consists of a line laser diode and two charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras and is placed on a computer numerical control (CNC) machine to measure the workpiece profiles. A space mapping method using the least-squares algorithm is presented for the probe calibration and profile measurement. This method provides a simple and accurate calculation of the relationship between the real space plane and its related image space plane in a CCD camera. A transparent grid with regularly spaced nodal points is used to construct the space mapping function. The space coordinate of an object can be obtained from its image in the CCD camera via the mapping function. The measured profile data are smoothed by the B-spline blending function and can be transferred to a CAD/CAM package for industrial applications. Experimental results show that this technique can determine the 3-D profile of an object with an accuracy of 60 μm.