On-Machine Optical Probe Based on Discrete Rotational Symmetric Triangulation

In the field of modern manufacturing, probes have been playing a more and more crucial role. However, contact probes are unfit for measuring objects with soft surfaces or very tiny cavities and require radius compensation of stylus. In comparison, noncontact probes such as optical probes do not have to consider these problems and are well-performed in measurement. However, existing optical probes (triangulation) may fail to detect objects with rich spatial structures (due to the occlusion effect) and highly reflective curved surfaces (due to existence of highlight spots). Considering the problems, an optical probe based on discrete rotational symmetric triangulation is proposed in this paper. The emitting laser beam of the probe is the rotational axis and the five receiving optical paths (lenses and mirrors) are rotationally symmetrically distributed around the laser axis and are coimaged on a CMOS camera. Results of simulations and experiments show that the new-established prototype is designed with good robustness under various conditions such as different surface characteristics and different inclination degrees. The probe enables conducting real-time on-machine measurement without directional dependency with a resolution of 39 μm and repeatability accuracy of 0.72 μm.