Information Aggregation of 3-Dimensional Coordinate Data and Multiple-Sensor Planning for Agile Metrology and Precision Manufacturing

该拨款为信息聚合技术和自动化传感器规划算法的开发提供资金，支持敏捷计量和精密制造的多传感器集成系统的信息自动化。开发的信息自动化技术将使用多传感器集成坐标测量机进行演示。该系统由高精度三坐标测量机、电动测头和三维视觉系统组成。在多传感器集成系统中，主动视觉系统将用于坐标采集的早期阶段，在大空间范围内同时获取数千个数据点，从而可以捕获物体表面几何形状和特征拓扑的全局信息。然后利用所提出的信息聚合技术对得到的坐标点（视图云）进行实时处理，提取高级几何抽象，包括特征边界、特征位置和方向、特征几何和特征拓扑。这些高级几何抽象将提供全局信息，当计算机辅助设计模型可用时，这些信息可用于定位对象和控制关键尺寸，或形成未知对象的表面几何形状和特征拓扑的初步描述。获得的物体的初步描述将随后被自动传感器规划算法用于定位视觉系统中最具信息量的视图，自动引导接触探头进行快速坐标数据采集，并策略性地控制坐标测量机进行高精度的关键表面积采样。如果成功，这项研究的结果将是传感器集成和计量学的重大进步。通过将先进的信息聚合技术以及自动化传感器规划算法与最先进的设备相结合，将为敏捷计量和快速表面数字化开发一个全自动、高速、高精度的坐标采集系统。此外，由于开发的系统将是完全自动化的，因此可以将开发的技术集成到各种精密制造过程中，用于零件定位和实时校准，以及控制临界尺寸，位置和精度尺寸。这项工作也将有潜在的应用在整个制造问题的范围内，对计量、尺寸控制和逆向工程产生重大影响。

This grant provides funding for the development of information aggregation technologies and automated sensor planning algorithms that support information automation of multiple-sensor integrated systems for agile metrology and precision manufacturing. The developed information automation technology will be demonstrated using a multiple-sensor integrated coordinate measuring machine. This integrated system consists of a high precision coordinate measuring machine, a motorized probe, and a three-dimensional vision system. In the multiple-sensor integrated system, the active vision system will be employed in the early stage of coordinate acquisition to simultaneously acquire thousands of data points over a large spatial range, therefore capturing the global information of an object's surface geometry and feature topology will be possible. The obtained coordinate points (view cloud) will then be processed in real time by the proposed information aggregation technologies so as to extract high-level geometric abstractions, including feature boundary, feature position and orientation, feature geometry, and feature topology. These high-level geometric abstractions will provide the global information that can be used either to locate objects and to control critical dimensions when Computer Aided Design models are available or to form a preliminary description of the surface geometry and feature topology of an unknown object. The obtained preliminary description of the object will be subsequently used by the automated sensor planning algorithms to locate the most informative view of the vision system, to automatically guide the contact probe for rapid coordinate data acquisition, and to strategically control the coordinate measuring machine for high precision sampling of critical surface area.If successful, the results of this research will be a significant advancement in sensor integration and metrology. By integrating advanced information aggregation technologies as well as automated sensor planning algorithms with the state of the art equipment, a fully automated, high speed, high precision, coordinate acquisition system will be developed for agile metrology and rapid surface digitization. In addition, since the developed system will be fully automated, it will be possible to integrate the developed technologies into various precision manufacturing processes for part localization and real-time calibration, and for the control of critical size, location, and precision dimension. This work will also have potential applications in a whole spectrum of manufacturing problems with a major impact on metrology, dimensional control, and reverse engineering.