The evolution of large-scale dimensional metrology from the perspective of scientific articles and patents

Abstract

In the last two decades, there has been a great development of the measuring systems in the field of large-scale dimensional metrology (LSDM), as also proved by the significant growth of the scientific literature. The aim of this paper is to analyze the LSDM scientific literature, from the dual perspective of scientific articles and patents, and estimate their impact in terms of amount of documents and relevant citations. In detail, this study investigates similarities and differences between articles and patents, as regards their dominant technologies and temporal distribution, and identifies (1) the major scientific journals and conference proceedings containing LSDM articles and (2) the major assignees of LSDM patents. Two main results emerge from the analysis: (a) important inventions concerning new LSDM systems were deposited before the end of twentieth century, while scientific articles have “bloomed” only in the last decade, and (b) the vast majority of patents concern inventions related to the laser-interferometry technology, while articles are divided more evenly among available technologies, with an important role played by the less accurate but more affordable ones, such as photogrammetry or structured-light scanning.