A high speed optical measurement system

A high-speed, non-contact, optimal system suited for the meausrement of displacements, distances, etc. is presented. The main benefits of this system are high measuring speed, insensivity to image blur, and high accuracy. The system consists of one or more line scan cameras, with up to 4k pixel line size, dedicated signal processing hardware, and an IBM-AT compatible computer. The digitized video data are processed by a dedicated signal processing hardware in real time; therefore, system speed is limited only by the sensor. The preprocessed data are passed to the IBM-AT computer where the final evaluation is performed. The performance of the employed measuring algorithm is not dependant on sharp or high-contrast edges and is therefore insensitive to blurred images. A high accuracy can be achieved by means of high resolution line scan sensors as well as by employing sub-pixel evaluation methods. Executing the major parts of the evaluation algorithms by special, dedicated hardware a high measuring speed of up to 5000 measurements per second is achieved. The system is suited for applications like contact alignment during relay production, vibration measurements of rotating shafts, tracking etc. A prototype of the system is to be installed in an industrial environment in 1990.