A Study on Autonomic High Speed Measurement of a Three Dimensional Shape by Using a Non-Contact Sensor for Detecting an Inclination Angle and a Gap Distance (2nd Report) —Development and Evaluation of the Sensor Element—

A non-contact sensor which can continuously and simultaneously detect the normal direction and the position of a measured point is a base of an autonomic high speed measuring system. In the 1st report, the sensor-element and the sensor are designed and performance of the element is clarified by computer simulations. Then this paper deals with the method for determining a normal direction and a position by using calibration data, which is based on linear interpolation method, and a development of the sensor-element. Also, performance of the developed sensor-element is investigated by basic experiments. The following three issues became clear from the experiments. (1) The sensor-element can detect a normal direction in the range from —45.0° to 45.0° and detect a position in the range from 2.7 mm to 6.0 mm for a diffuse surface. (2) For a specular surface, the range of a detected normal direction is restricted from —7.5° to 7.5°. (3) The sensor element has the accuracy of 3 μm with regard to detecting a position and the accuracy of 0.18° with regard to detecting a normal direction for a diffuse surface. In addition, it became clear that the simulation results shown in the 1st report are similar to the experiment results, so that validity of the simulation is confirmed.