Accurate measurement method for tube’s endpoints based on machine vision

Tubes are used widely in aerospace vehicles, and their accurate assembly can directly affect the assembling reliability and the quality of products. It is important to measure the processed tube’s endpoints and then fix any geometric errors correspondingly. However, the traditional tube inspection method is time-consuming and complex operations. Therefore, a new measurement method for a tube’s endpoints based on machine vision is proposed. First, reflected light on tube’s surface can be removed by using photometric linearization. Then, based on the optimization model for the tube’s endpoint measurements and the principle of stereo matching, the global coordinates and the relative distance of the tube’s endpoint are obtained. To confirm the feasibility, 11 tubes are processed to remove the reflected light and then the endpoint’s positions of tubes are measured. The experiment results show that the measurement repeatability accuracy is 0.167 mm, and the absolute accuracy is 0.328 mm. The measurement takes less than 1 min. The proposed method based on machine vision can measure the tube’s endpoints without any surface treatment or any tools and can realize on line measurement.