Automated Wood Carving Profiling using Modified Autocollimator Setup

Wood carving involves chiselling, which is a process of using a chisel and a mallet to obtain a particular shape profile in a wooden block. A perfect measuring tool decides the perfection of the shape profile in the chiselled wooden block. Automated tools are available to measure the dimensions of the wooden block but not to measure its shape profile and to compare with reference profile information. One of the solutions is to use machine vision, which involves using a camera and a processing system. It is only for shape analysis of chiselled wood blocks and not during the chiselling process, attributed to the wooden dust accumulating on the camera lens hindering the image acquisition process. So, we propose a technique for measuring the shape profile of wooden blocks during the chiselling process itself. This technique is not susceptible to wooden dust accumulation. The entire shape profiler is designed as an embedded module with custom hardware and software components.