Portable coordinate measurement machine with integrated line laser scanner
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A portable coordinate measurement machine (CMM) for measuring the position of an object in a selected volume, comprising:
- a manually positionable articulated arm having opposed first and second ends, said arm including a plurality of jointed arm segments, each arm segment including at least one position transducer for producing a position signal;
a thermally stabilized laser scanner at said first end of said arm;
an electronic circuit which receives the position signals from the transducers and provides a digital coordinate corresponding to the position of the first end of said arm in a selected volume; and
at least one internally positioned bus within said articulated arm for internally transmitting at least one of power and data signals to said laser scanner, said laser scanner including circuitry communicating with said at least one bus.
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Abstract
A portable coordinate measurement machine for measuring the position of an object in a selected volume includes a positionable articulated arm having a plurality of jointed arm segments. The arm includes a measurement probe having an integrated line laser scanner mounted thereon. The laser may be a thermally stabilized laser.
301 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A portable coordinate measurement machine (CMM) for measuring the position of an object in a selected volume, comprising:
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a manually positionable articulated arm having opposed first and second ends, said arm including a plurality of jointed arm segments, each arm segment including at least one position transducer for producing a position signal; a thermally stabilized laser scanner at said first end of said arm; an electronic circuit which receives the position signals from the transducers and provides a digital coordinate corresponding to the position of the first end of said arm in a selected volume; and at least one internally positioned bus within said articulated arm for internally transmitting at least one of power and data signals to said laser scanner, said laser scanner including circuitry communicating with said at least one bus. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A portable coordinate measurement machine (CMM) for measuring the position of an object in a selected volume, comprising:
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a manually positionable articulated arm having opposed first and second ends, said arm including a plurality of jointed arm segments, each arm segment including at least one position transducer for producing a position signal; a laser scanner at said first end of said arm; at least one clear window mounted on the laser scanner; an electronic circuit which receives the position signals from the transducers and provides a digital coordinate corresponding to the position of the first end of said arm in a selected volume; and at least one internally positioned bus within said articulated arm for internally transmitting at least one of power and data signals to said laser scanner, said laser scanner including circuitry communicating with said at least one bus;
whereinsaid laser scanner includes at least one attenuator located to reduce the width of a laser line emitted from the laser.
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28. A method for calibrating a coordinate measurement machine (CMM) for measuring the position of an object, comprising:
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digitizing a calibration plate using a ball probe, and also using a laser line scanner which are both attached to the CMM comprising; touching the ball probe to an area of the calibration plate and digitizing a plurality of reference points on the surface; calculating the flatness of the surface from the position of the reference points; aiming the laser line scanner at the center of the surface of the calibration plate in relation to the plurality of reference points; rotating the laser line scanner 90° and
aiming the laser line scanner at the center of the surface of the calibration plate in relation to the plurality of reference points;aiming the laser line scanner at the center of the surface of the calibration plate in relation to the plurality of reference points and moving the laser line scanner towards the surface to a range close to the surface of the calibration plate; and
moving the laser line scanner away from the surface of the calibration plate while pointing to the center of the surface; andcalculating calibration points for the line laser scanner from the position of the reference points in relation to the laser scanner aiming ad rotating steps performed above; and updating a stored probe calibration status of the ball probe.
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Specification