Showing papers by "Chia-Hsiang Menq published in 2001"

Automatic data segmentation for geometric feature extraction from unorganized 3-D coordinate points

Abstract: A systematic approach is proposed to automatically extract geometric surface features from a point cloud composed of a set of unorganized three-dimensional coordinate points by data segmentation. The point cloud is sampled from the boundary surface of a mechanical component with arbitrary shape. The proposed approach is composed of three steps. In the first step, a mesh surface domain is reconstructed to establish an explicit topological relation among the discrete points. The topological adjacency is further optimized to recover the second order object geometry. In the second step, curvature-based border detection is applied on the irregular mesh to extract both sharp borders with tangent discontinuity and smooth borders with curvature discontinuity. Finally, the mesh patches separated by the extracted borders are grouped together in the third step. For objects with complex shape, a multilevel segmentation scheme is proposed for better results. The capability of the proposed approach is demonstrated using various point clouds having distinct characteristics. Integrated with state of art scanning devices, the developed segmentation scheme can support reverse engineering of high precision mechanical components. It has potential applications in a whole spectrum of engineering problems with a major impact on rapid design and prototyping, shape analysis, and virtual reality.

Periodic Response of Blades Having Three-Dimensional Nonlinear Shroud Constraints

Abstract: In this paper, a three-dimensional shroud contact model is employed to predict the periodic response of blades having three-dimensional nonlinear shroud constraint. When subjected to periodic excitation, the resulting relative motion at the shroud contact is assumed to be periodic in three-dimensional space. Based on the three-dimensional shroud contact model, analytical criteria are used to determine the transitions between stick, slip, and separation of the contact interface and are used to simulate hysteresis loops of the induced constrained force when experiencing periodic relative motion. The constrained force can be considered as a feedback force that influences the response of the shrouded blade. By using the multiharmonic balance method along with Fast Fourier Transform, the constrained force can be approximated by a series of harmonic functions so as to predict the periodic response of a shrouded blade. This approach results in a set of nonlinear algebraic equations, which can be solved iteratively to yield the periodic response of blades having three-dimensional nonlinear shroud constraint. In order to validate the proposed approach, the predicted results are compared with those of the direct-time integration method. The resonant frequency shift, the damping effect, and the jump phenomenon due to nonlinear shroud constraint are examined. The implications of the developed solution procedure to the design of shroud contact are also discussed.

Automatic camera calibration for a multiple-sensor integrated coordinate measurement system

Abstract: An automatic camera calibration scheme that utilizes a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and a camera calibration algorithm is presented for a multiple-sensor integrated coordinate measurement system. In the proposed calibration scheme, the touch probe tip carried by the CMM is employed to automatically generate high-precision calibration target points for camera calibration and sensor integration. A camera calibration algorithm with analytical formulations is developed to calibrate camera parameters in three stages without nonlinear minimization procedures. Simulations and experiments were performed to verify the proposed camera calibration algorithm. The precision of the automatic camera calibration scheme is also evaluated.