Developing the Light-Controlled Factory

Abstract

The Light-Controlled Factory (LCF) is a multi-partner UK development project directed by the University of Bath and running for 5 years from July 2013 to July 2018. As one of the partners, University College London (UCL) has the responsibility to create a “ubiquitous” 7D multi-camera system which can track and align multiple manufactured components across a large manufacturing environment. Multi-camera systems already have commercial application, for example at lower accuracies in the form of motion capture systems for entertainment industries and at metrology accuracies in automotive design applications. The challenge in LCF is to make metrology-level tracking work over wide spaces using systems which, when commercialized, will be affordable. Vision metrology, based on multi-camera, realtime photogrammetry, and ideally using low-cost cameras, offers a good starting point. However, the basic multi-camera network must handle other challenges such as the following. 1) Optimized camera calibration Well calibrated cameras give the best performance and monochromatic illumination enables the use of a camera model tuned to a particular frequency of light. 2) Refraction correction LUMINAR, a partner project which is now complete, gave UCL the chance to explore ways of mitigating the effects of refraction in a factory environment, primarily due to thermal differences in the operating space. These are likely to be significant at the longer ranges expected in wide-area measurement.