Abstract: Free-form surfaces have wide applications in modern areas of Engineering. Parametric formulations like Bezier, B-Spline and NURBS are used to model these free-form components that are used for automobile, biomedical and aerospace applications. Manufacturing processes ranging from solidification to modern additive manufacturing are used to physically realise these modelled components. Devices like Co-ordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) and non-contact scanners are used to measure these manufactured free-form components.
High precision and accuracy of CMM make it widely used compared to the latter. The measured data, i.e. the output of the CMM needs to be processed and compared with the reference model for proper inspection. Fast and accurate algorithms are necessary for this purpose. In this aspect, various computational geometric techniques have low execution times and seem promising. In this direction, a 3D Voronoi diagram-based two stage-methodology is developed for form error estimation of 3D free-form surfaces and the same is presented in this seminar. The algorithms of the developed methodology are suitable for 3D surfaces measured using CMM operated in discrete scanning mode. Implementations were executed for both simulated surfaces and experimental data obtained by measuring machined free-form surfaces.