Measuring system for determining 3D coordinates of an object surface

A measuring system for determining 3D coordinates of measurement points of an object surface in an outer object coordinate system, the measuring system comprising:

• an optical scanning device based on a triangulation principle for point by point optical measurement of the measurement points of the object surface and for determining inner measurement point coordinates in an inner scanning coordinate system;
• a referencing arrangement for generating referencing information for referencing the inner measurement point coordinates in the outer object coordinate system;
• an evaluation unit for determining 3D coordinates of the measurement points in the outer object coordinate system depending on the inner measurement point coordinates and referencing information, so that the inner measurement point coordinates are present as 3D coordinates in the outer object coordinate system;
• an unmanned, controllable, automotive air vehicle carrying the optical scanning device;
• and
• a control unit configured such that the air vehicle is moved relative to the object surface under automatic control while maintaining a predefined range of measuring distances, wherein a measuring distance takes into account at least one of:
• respective current inner measurement point coordinates determined with the optical scanning device;
• and
• a digital model object surface predefined by a digital model along a flight path defined by the digital model;
• wherein at least one of
• the control unit is configured to move and orient the air vehicle while being automatically controlled relative to the object surface depending on the measuring distance to the object surface that is determined with the optical scanning device;
• a position and a target profile of the object surface is pre-determinable by a digital CAD model and, based on a predefined object surface, respective target surface coordinates are comparable with the respective 3D coordinates and the referencing arrangement is referenced to the object surface by referencing predefined reference points;
• and
• the optical scanning device comprises at least one of:
• an optical scanning apparatus generating scanning strips during a movement of the air vehicle,
• the measuring system configured to use image sequences for determining at least one of the inner measurement point coordinates in the inner scanning coordinate system and the inner measurement point coordinates in the outer scanning coordinate system,
• a line scanner,
• a strip projection scanner, and
• a camera.