Automated Inspection and Reverse Engineering

Abstract

CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Manufacturing) typically involves the design and manufacture of a mechanical part. The problem of reverse engineering is to take an existing mechanical part as the point of departure and to produce a design, and perhaps a manufacturing process, for the part. We explore a new approach to reverse engineering and inspection applications. Discrete event dynamic systems (DEDS) are investigated as a new framework for guiding and controlling the active exploration and perception of mechanical parts. The dynamic recursive context for finite state machines (DRFSM) is introduced as a new DEDS tool for utilizing the recursive nature of the mechanical parts under consideration. The framework utilizes DRFSM DEDS for constructing a goal-directed autonomous observer for inspection and reverse engineering purposes. The developed techniques are then used to aid CAD pre-constructed models for inspection purposes and/or to develop models for subsequent manufacturing, thus, closing the sensing → modeling → manufacturing → inspection loop.