Enhanced measurement of steep surfaces by slope-adapted sensor tilting

Abstract

In the field of tactile surface probing, the contact point between the probing tip and the surface varies depending on the local surface slope. In the case of 2.5D systems such as profilometers or atomic force microscopes, the measurement of high slopes leads to large deviations. Therefore a probing principle is investigated that applies a surface slope-dependent sensor tip rotation to maintain an orthogonal orientation to the measured surface. To realize the tilting system, strategies are necessary to determine the optimal tip rotation angle for each surface point. Possible strategies can be based on a two-pass scan with a priori knowledge of the surface with a pre-scan, a single-pass scan with dynamic extrapolation of already acquired surface points or a combination with multiple strategies. To determine the most suitable strategies and the best algorithms a simulation and analysis environment was developed. The focus of this work is the development and simulation of the strategies.