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US 6,366,831 B1Granted
Coordinate measurement machine with articulated arm and software interface
AssigneeFaro Technologies, Inc.
InventorSimon Raab
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Abstract
A novel, portable coordinate measuring machine comprises a multijointed (preferably six joints) manually positionable measuring arm for accurately and easily measuring a volume. In addition to the articulated measuring arm, the present invention employs a software interface which permits the arm to be used in connection with one or more applications programs.
Claims12
A three dimensional coordinate measuring system comprising:
- a movable arm having opposed first and second ends, said arm including a plurality of joints with each joint corresponding to a degree of freedom such that said arm is movable within a selected volume, each of said joints comprising a rotational transfer housing and a transducer housed in said rotational transfer housing, each of said transducers producing a position signal;
- a support base attached to said first end of said movable arm;
- a probe attached to said second end of said movable arm;
- and
- an electronic circuit including an interface for receiving said position signals from said transducer and providing digital position coordinates corresponding to the position of said probe in a selected volume;
- wherein said interface includes;
- a communication port for a host computer running at least one application program using digital position coordinates as input data;
- a memory containing data handling software specific for said at least one application program running on said host computer;
- and
- at least one microprocessor for executing said data handling software responsive to the specific application program currently running on said host computer, so that said digital position coordinates are pre-processed to be commensurate with data input requirements of the specific application program currently running on said host computer.
7 more elements
A device for recording three dimensional coordinates, comprising:
- a movable arm having a first and a second end, said arm including a plurality of joints, each joint corresponding to a degree of freedom, such that said arm is movable within a selected volume, and each of said joints comprising a rotational transfer housing with an integrated transducer for generating position signals corresponding to the angular position of the respective joint;
- a support base attached to said first end of said movable arm;
- a probe attached to said second end of said movable arm;
- and
- electronic evaluation logic for calculating on the basis of said position signals of the transducer, the position of the probe wherein said electronic evaluation logic comprises an intelligent interface with a connection port for a separate computer and wherein a processing unit is integrated onto the intelligent interface, said processing unit calculating on a continuous basis position and/or orientation data of the probe, and wherein a specific protocol is preprogrammed into the intelligent interface for at least one user program running on a computer connected to said connection port, said protocol enabling said intelligent interface to respond at its connection port to a polling request of the computer with position and/or orientation data calculated by the separate processing unit.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.