Method and apparatus for the contact-less measuring of objects
First Claim
1. Apparatus for contactless measurement of distance to the surface of an object, said apparatus comprising:
- (a) a light projector for producing a collimated bundle of light along a projection axis to a surface portion of the object, whereby to produce a single light spot on the surface of the object;
(b) an imaging optical system on an imaging optical axis which is inclined to the projection axis, for imaging the single light spot in an image plane;
(c) a position-sensitive detector at the image plane of said imaging optical system; and
(d) image-analysis means connected to process output signals of said detector for determining the lateral offset of the light-spot image with respect to a predetermined reference position of the imaged spot, said image-analysis means including means for area-evaluation of the imaged spot, whereby to determine local inclination of the object surface.
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Abstract
The invention concerns a method for the optical sensing of workpieces in accordance with the principle of triangulation in which a light spot is projected at an angle onto the object to be measured (13) and the distance from the object (13) is determined from the displacement of the image of the light spot as measured with a position-sensitive detector (10).
In addition, the shape or the area of the light spot is measured by means of an image analysis instrument (3) and the inclination of the surface of the object to the direction of observation is determined therefrom in order to increase the accuracy of the distance determination.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. Apparatus for contactless measurement of distance to the surface of an object, said apparatus comprising:
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(a) a light projector for producing a collimated bundle of light along a projection axis to a surface portion of the object, whereby to produce a single light spot on the surface of the object; (b) an imaging optical system on an imaging optical axis which is inclined to the projection axis, for imaging the single light spot in an image plane; (c) a position-sensitive detector at the image plane of said imaging optical system; and (d) image-analysis means connected to process output signals of said detector for determining the lateral offset of the light-spot image with respect to a predetermined reference position of the imaged spot, said image-analysis means including means for area-evaluation of the imaged spot, whereby to determine local inclination of the object surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. The contactless method of using a position-sensitive detector to measure distance to the surface of an object, which method comprises:
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(a) projecting a single collimated bundle of light along a projection axis to a surface portion of the object, thereby producing a light spot on the surface of the object, whereby the sectional area of the bundle is substantially independent of object distance; (b) optically imaging the light spot at the position-sensitive detector on an imaging axis which is inclined with respect to the projection axis; (c) determining distance to the object surface by measuring the lateral offset of the image of the light spot from a predetermined point at the position-sensitive detector; (d) measuring the area of the image of the light spot; and (e) determining the angle of inclination between said surface portion and the imaging axis by comparing the area of the lightspot image with a predetermined reference value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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Specification