Development of a non‐contact complete 3D surface measurement system for small complex objects using a triangulation laser probe

Abstract

This study presents the development of a PC‐based 4‐axis reverse engineering measurement system, in which a triangulation laser probe was integrated with a 4‐axis measurement machine, to measure the complete 3D surface of a small complex object. The information in the whole measuring system, comprising a personal computer, a multi‐axis motion control card, and a controller of the circular triangulation laser probe as well as the 4‐axis measuring machine and the laser mentioned above, was integrated technically. The measurement software programmed with C++ language was also developed to configure the measuring path and process the digitized data points. Four scanning procedures and the data registration methods, namely the zigzag reciprocal measuring procedure, rotational measuring procedure, multifold measuring procedure, and the combination of horizontal and vertical measuring procedures, were proposed for the developed measurement system. Based on the experimental results, the developed system was applied successfully to the reverse engineering measurement of some small complex models, such as a surgical guide model, an incisor tooth model, and a toy model.