Kinematic Modeling of an Automated Laser Line Point Cloud Scanning System

This paper describes the geometric transformation of coordinates in the elements of an automated laser line scanning system caused by movements required for scanning a component surface. The automated scanning system elements are a laser line scanner mounted on a robot arm or a probe tip with coordinate measuring machine. A major challenge is determining the kinematic relationship between the elements of an automated laser scanning system that functions as a mechanical linkage in order to obtain a trajectory for scanning a surface. This paper solves the forward kinematic equations to get the validation pose for the elements of the system, derives the equation of component surface considering a spherical component, and uses inverse kinematics to characterize the movement of the entire automated scanning system on the point trajectory. The result is the position and orientation matrix for the laser line scanner beam and its movement on the trajectory in relation to a component surface. This kinematic chain of linkages and the obtained poses of point trajectory on the component surface is a starting point for future work that aims to develop optimal scan paths that can collect “best” point cloud datasets. The outcomes of this work contribute to enhancing the use of laser line scanners for inspection of component surfaces in manufacturing, remanufacturing, and reverse engineering applications.