Hardware-based error compensation in 3D optical metrology systems

Laser Metrology as a tool for 3D measurements is seeing increased use in industrial applications. With advances in computer processing power, there have been many publications on new algorithms to correct distortions, speckle and other problems affecting the errors in such systems. But there have also been many advances in the hardware tools, including specialty lenses, light sources, and feedback systems that offer many initial corrections than can be employed before any computer analysis is even attempted. This paper will discuss the tradeoff of hardware and software corrections, the primary sources of hardware based errors, and new methods to realize these corrections in the hardware.