Non-articulated portable CMM

A portable articulated arm coordinate measuring machine for measuring three-dimensional coordinates of an object in space, comprising:

• a base;
• a manually positionable arm rotationally coupled to the base at a first end, the arm including at least one arm segment, each arm segment including at least one position transducer for producing a position signal;
• an electronic circuit which receives the position signal from the at least one position transducer;
• a non-articulated measurement device coupled to the second end of the arm, the non-articulated measurement device including:
• a flexible member including at least one sensing element configured to sense deflection of an adjacent portion of the flexible member;
• a probe connected to a second end of the flexible member, the probe being configured to contact a surface of an object;
• and
• a processing unit operably coupled to the at least one sensing element to sense deflection thereof, the processing unit having a stored model of the flexible member such that the processing unit is configured to apply the deflection sensed of the at least one sensing element to the model to determine the position and shape of the flexible member;
• and
• a processor coupled to the electronic circuit, the processor being configured to determine the three-dimensional coordinates of a point on the object in response to receiving the position signal from the at least one position transducer and in response to receiving position signals from the processing unit.