Prediction of surface reconstruction uncertainties for freeform surface inspection

A method is introduced to predict uncertainties of the B-spline freeform surfaces that are reconstructed from the measurement points for inspection of freeform surfaces. The uncertainties of a reconstructed B-spline surface are modeled by variances of coordinates of points on this freeform surface. Prediction of the uncertainty at any location on the reconstructed B-spline surface is carried out in two steps: (1) estimation of variances of the B-spline surface's control points introduced by the surface reconstruction process, and (2) propagation of the variances from the control points to the points on the B-spline freeform surface. In this research, the variances of the control points of the reconstructed B-spline surface in all three directions are considered to improve the accuracy of uncertainty prediction in the regions with significant changes of geometric shapes. Both the errors and uncertainties at different locations on the reconstructed surface are considered in freeform surface inspection to compare the manufactured surface against the design surface and its tolerance. The developed method has been applied to two case studies to demonstrate its effectiveness. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.