Acquisition of topographies of objects having arbitrary geometries

An object positioning system for use with an optical sensor system for acquiring a surface of the object, the optical sensor system having a set of motors for rotating the object around a motor axis perpendicular to an optical axis of the optical sensor system and for translating the object in X, Y and Z directions, the object positioning system comprising:

• a processor in a computer system;
• a memory accessible by the processor;
• and
• an application coupled to the processor, wherein the application, when executed by the processor:
• (a) determine a motor axis position relative to a reference position in a reference coordinate system;
• (b) positions at least one of said optical sensor system and said object to correspond to a desired position for an acquisition and acquiring a relief map of an area in a field of view of the optical sensor system;
• (c) computes a normal representative of a topography of the relief map of the area;
• (d) determines an angle difference between the normal and the optical axis of the optical sensor system and comparing the angle difference to a threshold angle to determine if a surface of the area is perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical sensor system;
• (e) if the angle difference is greater than a threshold angle, dynamically computes a set of repositioning parameters using the motor axis position, for rotating the object to obtain a new difference angle less than said threshold angle and translating said object to reposition said area in said field of view after said rotating has displaced said area.