View and sensor planning for multi-sensor surface inspection

Abstract

Modern manufacturing processes enable the precise fabrication of high-value parts with high precision and performance. At the same time, the demand for flexible on-demand production of individual objects is continuously increasing. These requirements can only be met if inspection systems provide appropriate answers. One solution is the use of flexible, multi-sensor setups where multiple optical sensors with different fields of application are combined in one system. However, the challenge is then to assist the user in planning the inspection for individual parts. A manual planning requires an expert knowledge of the performance and functionality of every sensor. Therefore, software assistant systems help the user to objectively select the right sensors for a given inspection task. The planning step becomes still more difficult if the manufactured part has a complex form. The implication is that a sensor's position must also be part of the planning process since it significantly influences the quality of the inspection. This paper describes a view and sensor planning approach for a multi-sensor surface inspection system in the context of optical topography measurements in the micro- and meso-scale range. In order to realize an online processing of the assistant system, a significant part of the calculations are done on the graphics processing unit (GPU).