Portable Coordinate Measuring Machine

Abstract

Many industrial and medical applications necessitate knowing or tracking, instantaneously, the position and orientation of objects relative to a known reference with high accuracy. Also quick setup time and calibration is always desired if the information is needed for real-time on-site application. Available coordinate measuring machines and surface profilers lack for orientation tracking, and available orientation trackers adopt techniques that lose accuracy or may need time consuming and difficult calibration procedures. In this project, a portable pre-calibrated mechanical device for position and orientation tracking in 3D space is designed and constructed. The device provided easy-to-use portable tool for on-site usage. Accuracy test showed that it can operate within ± 0.35 mm and ± 3° linear and angular accuracies respectively, and can be used for acquiring geometrical information such as length, surface orientation and distance between planes.