Emerging non-contact 3D measurement technologies for shape retrieval and processing

In recent years, globalisation has forced industries to operate in a highly competitive environment. As a result, the time-to-market of products has become a crucial issue. In order to deal with this challenge, rapid production methods were developed. These methods are incorporated into the phases of the product life cycle. The goal of this work is to study and investigate existing non-contact measurement technologies, methods and processes used in industry and academic centres for product development, design and manufacture. The reverse engineering (RE) technology enables fast design based on an existing physical object, and the on-line non-contact inspection significantly reduces manufacturing time. This paper overviews the state-of-the art in 3D measurement technologies and proposes a novel volumetric methodology for processing the sampled 3D data.