Technical Papers & Journals

Modern Radar Metrology

Robert Strauten – Raytheon Technologies

The advancements in laser tracker technology have allowed portability of measurement solutions from system assembly through field installation and deployment. Accurate characterization of radar angular orientation and centering is paramount in optimizing...

Brunson KinAiry Implementation at Lockheed Martin Space

Robert Elliott

Laser trackers have seen wide use in the aerospace industry since the early 1990s. Users follow several field check methods including manufacturer recommended procedures as well as user-defined procedures. Brunson Instrument Company in conjunction with the...

Review of the US Patent Literature on Digital Twins and Possible Applications for Coordinate Metrology

David H. Parker

The idea of “digital twins” is relatively new–although it will be argued that the coordinate metrology community has in fact been using the concepts of “digital twins” for many years. The term was first introduced by Michael Grieves, in the...

Fast Sphere Recognition in point clouds using RGB / Intensity

Dr. Chris Greer, Dr. Jyani Vaddi

Scanning spheres are used for a variety of reasons in large point clouds captured by large volume 3D scanners. A couple these reasons are: point cloud registration, automatic alignment, and creation of geometry and center points for further analysis....

The Adaptive Measurement Template

Gerd Schwaderer

Measuring distorted parts automatically without local coordinate systems and manual interaction using scanning and adaptive measurement templates. Larger deformations in the range of the wall thickness or initial size of measurement area per geometry...

Surface Damage Catalog for Contact-measuring Space Flight Optics using a Coordinate Measuring Machine

Joshua Berrier

Autonomous Large Scale Weld Distortion Monitoring

Steve Seiler, Justin Novak

This paper will detail the development, testing, and integration efforts associated with a Near Real Time Weld Distortion Metrology System installed at Newport News Shipbuilding. This system was developed as a collaborative effort between Metrologists at...

Large Scale Aircraft Repairs with Photogrammetry and Laser Tracker

Michael A. Lazar, Dr. Francesco Savelli

Boeing supports Aircraft on Ground (AOG) operations to repair damaged airplanes in service. The paper will outline two case studies of large scale repairs:1. 707 E-6B Mercury Doomsday Plane Tail Replacement.An E-6B Mercury Command and Control Aircraft was...

Improving Reliability of GD&T Evaluations Using Portable Measuring Systems

Scott Sandwith, John Palmateer

GD&T is an engineering drawing language establishing consistent communication between design intent, manufacturing, and inspection. Book examples of the inspection are often illustrated by fitting parts within physical gages, and using dimensional...

How to Design a Metrology System for Measuring Industrial Robots

Ollie Martin

Serial-axis industrial robots are increasingly being used for challenging processes that are at the limit of their capability. Pushing the manufacturing envelope with these traditional serial-axis robots has several limitations that need to be overcome,...