Automatic Registration For Inspection Of Complex Shapes

With the increase in computing power, new ways of inspecting manufactured parts can be realized. The availability of computing power allows computational alignment between measurements and computer aided design (CAD) models using registration algorithms. The present paper proposes a new inspection approach that removes a constraint of traditional inspection processes related to part alignment. Traditional techniques require a fixture to align the part so the inspection machine can establish a common coordinate system between the measurement and the CAD model. Removing the need of a fixture aids automating the inspection process. The proposed approach employs an automated registration methodology based on two main stages. First, a part measurement in an arbitrary coordinate system is transformed to approximately fit the shape of the CAD model. Then, this approximation is iteratively refined until its convergence. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, results are demonstrated on measurements obtained from three rapid prototyped parts with complex geometry.