Portable coordinate measurement machine with integrated line laser scanner

A method for calibrating a coordinate measurement machine (CMM) for measuring the position of an object, comprising:

• digitizing a calibration plate using a ball probe, and also using a fiber coupled laser line scanner which are both attached to the CMM comprising:
• touching the ball probe to an area of the calibration plate and digitizing a plurality of reference points on the surface;
• calculating the flatness of the surface from the position of the reference points;
• aiming the fiber coupled laser line scanner at the center of the surface of the calibration plate in relation to the plurality of reference points;
• rotating the laser line scanner 90° and aiming the fiber coupled laser line scanner at the center of the surface of the calibration plate in relation to the plurality of reference points;
• aiming the laser line scanner at the center of the surface of the calibration plate in relation to the plurality of reference points and moving the fiber coupled laser line scanner towards the surface to a range close to the surface of the calibration plate;
• and moving the fiber coupled laser line scanner away from the surface of the calibration plate while pointing to the center of the surface;
• and
• calculating calibration points for fiber coupled laser line scanner from the position of the reference points in relation to the fiber coupled laser scanner aiming ad rotating steps performed above;
• and
• updating a stored probe calibration status of the ball probe;
• wherein said fiber coupled laser line scanner comprises a bracket;
• and
• a temperature sensor is mounted on said bracket.

A portable coordinate measurement machine (CMM) for measuring the position of an object in a selected volume, comprising:

• a manually positionable articulated arm having opposed first and second ends, said arm including a plurality of jointed arm segments, each arm segment including at least one position transducer for producing a position signal;
• a laser scanner at said first end of said arm;
• an electronic circuit which receives the position signals from the transducers and provides a digital coordinate corresponding to the position of the first end of said arm in a selected volume;
• and
• at least one internally positioned bus within said articulated arm for internally transmitting at least one of power and data signals to said laser scanner, said laser scanner including circuitry communicating with said at least one bus;
• and
• said laser scanner including a wireless antenna for communicating data to and from said laser scanner to reduce data sent over the bus;
• wherein the laser scanner comprises a bracket;
• and
• a temperature sensor is mounted on said bracket.