Industrial applications of optical techniques that measure displacements

Abstract

Full-field optical techniques have reached a level of development that makes them ideal tools to solve many practical industrial problems. The areas of application include metrology; nondestructive evaluation of components; solutions to stress analysis problems, both static and dynamic; and development of sensors. In metrology, of particular significance are problems of three-dimensional (3-D) shape measurement. The shape measurement is connected to computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing programs, rapid prototyping, and reverse engineering. Unlike tactile machines that provide single-point data, optical methods provide high-density information, and their accuracy has reached a level comparable to tactile machines. This information makes feasible a number of new applications of high industrial interest in reverse engineering. Another area of great interest is 3-D visualization. Other areas of growth are the detection of flaws in nondestructive evaluation, problems arising from dynamic effects, refining of modeling techniques, and development of new sensors. A completely new area of application is the use of optical techniques in the field of microelectromechanical systems and in the area of nanosciences. Very recent work shows that one can go beyond the Rayleigh limit and obtain information at the nanolevel. It is possible to anticipate that a great expansion will take place in these fields in the next few years.