A non-contact optical technique employing dual-wavelength laser speckle is investigated for absolute angle measurement. The approach uses the separation of the speckle patterns formed by two closely spaced illumination wavelengths to determine the angle of a surface. Autocorrelation is performed on a single exposure containing both speckle patterns to find their relative displacement, which is directly related to the absolute surface angle. This absolute angle determination offers an advantage over previous techniques using laser speckle that require a reference image. The underlying theory linking the speckle pattern displacement and the surface angle is presented, along with a proof-of-concept sensor. Experimental results from the sensor confirm the validity of the theory, with measurements demonstrating a mean difference from applied angles of 0.136°.

Date Published: 21 June 2019
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 11056, Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection XI, 110560K (21 June 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2525335

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11056:
Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection XI
Peter Lehmann; Wolfgang Osten; Armando Albertazzi Gonçalves Jr., Editor(s)