Optical 3D Sensors

Area-based acquisition for OEM integration into coordinate measurement devices, robots and automation projects

Optical 3D sensors with area-based acquisition are usually based on phase measuring frin-ge projection. Until now, these were not well-suited for integration into coordinate meas-urement devices, robots or automation projects, due to their weight and cost, as compared to line or point sensors.

GFM’s new sensors using pico projection devices by Texas Instruments are powerful, eco-nomic OEM 3D sensors that successfully accomplish this integration.

These 3D sensors are based on phase measuring digital fringe projection, and are available in different configurations depending on measuring volume and resolution. The typical sen-sor is 12 x 11 x 5 cm³ small and weighs only 450 g.

Using integrated signal processing, the entire measuring process -- from recording to cal-culation of data sets -- is conducted within the sensor. The result is a 3D data set, sent to the user's application software in ASCII format or by direct API call via the Ethernet inter-face. The sensor's projection speed of 60 Hz means a complete data set with approxi-mately 300,000 measured points is generated within only one second.

Sensors may be integrated into measuring and automation facilities by a standard Ethernet link.

An API for integration of the sensor, as well as a detailed description, can be obtained from GFM.