The Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System II (MScMS-II): system description and preliminary assessment of the measurement uncertainty

Politecnico di Torino, Production Systems and Business Economics Department (DISPEA), Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 – I-10129 Torino, Italy

^⋆ Correspondence: maurizio.galetto@polito.it

Received: 5 August 2010
Accepted: 20 August 2010

Abstract

According to the increasing interest in metrological systems for the dimensional measurements of large-size objects in a wide range of industrial sectors, several solutions based on different technologies, working principles, architectures, and functionalities have recently been developed. Among all, the most flexible and easily transportable solutions are those that have aroused most interest and have found greater success. In order to address the needs of Large-Scale Metrology (LSM) applications, a distributed flexible system based on a network of low-cost InfraRed (IR) sensors – the Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System II (MScMS-II) – has been developed at the Industrial Quality and Metrology Laboratory of Politecnico di Torino. This paper presents a preliminary uncertainty assessment of the system referring to the measured point coordinates in the 3D space, focusing on the sources of measurement uncertainty and the related propagation laws. A preliminary metrological characterization of MScMS-II architecture, experimentally evaluated through a system prototype, is also presented and discussed.