Automatic planning and optimization of a laser radar inspection system

Journal article, 2025

This work advances the field of inspection process planning by introducing novel models and optimization algorithms for off-line planning in laser radar metrology systems, where re-calibration is needed. The key contribution is a method for the automatic cycle time optimization of inspection programs, accounting for the system to be re-calibrated by measuring some of the tooling spheres. Customized algorithms are derived to solve the problem, together with a novel integer programming model based on a set covering approach for viewpoint coverage planning. The proposed method is implemented within an off-line simulation environment, where its effectiveness and limitations are analyzed through a computational study and validated in industrial scenarios.