Obtaining four-dimensional vibration information for vibrating surfaces with a Kinect sensor

In this paper, we present a real-time approach to obtain four-dimensional (4D) information from the surfaces of low-frequency vibrating rigid objects using a Kinect sensor. This consumer-grade range sensing technology is used for markerless tracking on the three-dimensional (3D) coordinate points of object surfaces. The time coordinates are simultaneously defined by the sampling interval converted from the frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps). Then the 4D (defined in the space time) vibration information can be recorded in the form of (x, y, z, t), enabling researchers to investigate the dynamic features of object surfaces efficiently. A comparison of the measurement accuracy and efficiency of a Kinect sensor, a stereo vision system and a contact sensor is carried out. The results confirm the superiority of our approach in efficient measurement and demonstrate that the contrastive amplitude error ranges within 0.6 mm when the frequency is not beyond 15 Hz.     

Three-dimensional optical microscopy using tilted views

The resolution of an optical microscope is considerably less in the direction of the optical axis (z) than in the x–y plane. This is true of conventional or confocal microscopes. To alleviate this problem we used multiple tilted views to supply the ‘missing data’ and thus increase the resolution in z. A special tilting stage was constructed which allowed specimens to be rotated through large angles. The relative, translation, rotation and z-spacing between data sets were determined by a novel Wiener/phase cross-correlation function. Once brought to a common coordinate system the data sets can be combined by Fourier space techniques similar to those used in X-ray crystallography. We applied this technique to metaphase chromosomes from intact embryos of Drosophila melanogaster. As determined from significant intensity in the Fourier transform, the resolution of the final reconstruction was about 0?25 μm in x and y, and 0?4 μm in z.     

Traceable calibration of transfer standards for scanning probe microscopy

A Metrological Atomic Force Microscope (MAFM) has been constructed for the traceable calibration of transfer standards for scanning probe microscopy. It uses optical interferometry to generate image scales with direct traceability to the national standard of length. Three interferometers monitor the relative displacements of the AFM tip and sample in the x, y and z directions and the interferometer data is used directly to construct 3D images of sample surfaces. Traceable dimensional measurement of surface features may then be derived from the image data. This paper describes the MAFM instrument and presents a measurement uncertainty budget. Examples are given of measurements of pitch and step height on calibration transfer standards for scanning probe microscopy.     

Free vibration of a class of solids with cavities

The Ritz method is used to obtain an eigenvalue equation for the free vibration of a class of solids. Each solid is modelled by means of a segment which is described in terms of Cartesian coordinates and is bounded by the yz, zx and xy orthogonal coordinate planes as well as by two curved surfaces which are defined by polynomial expressions in the coordinates x, y and z. Simple algebraic polynomials which satisfy the boundary conditions at the five surfaces of the segment are used as trial functions. By exploiting symmetry, the range of problems which can be treated is substantially broadened and includes a variety of problems of significant interest in structural analysis, such as thick or very thick shells with various shaped cavities. In order to demonstrate the accuracy of the approach, natural frequencies are given for a sphere with a spherical cavity (a thick spherical shell) as calculated by using the present analysis and by using an exact formulation. The versatility of the approach is then demonstrated by the treatment of several other hollow solids of differing geometry, including a thick cylinder with end plates, a cubic box, a cube with a spherical cavity and a cylinder with a conical inclusion.     

Precision inspection system for aircraft parts having very thin features based on CAD/CAI integration

In this paper, a precision inspection technique using CAD/CAI integration is proposed for parts having very thin and sharply curved features. The technique begins with feature reconstruction of turbine blades which have combined geometry, such as splines, and thin small radius circles. The alignment procedures consists of two phases — rough and fine phases: the rough phase alignment is based on the conventional 6 points probing on the clear cut surfaces, and the fine phase alignment is based on the initial measurement of the curved parts using the least-squares technique based on iterative measurement feedback. For the analysis of profile tolerance of parts, the actual measured points are obtained by finding the closest points on the CAD geometry by the subdivision technique developed. The Tschebyscheff norm is applied iteratively, giving an accurate profile tolerance. The inspection technique developed is applied to practical blade manufacturing, and has demonstrated good performance.Nomenclature r _i (u),r _j (u) 3D vector curve representing theith,jth curve segment for spline - u, parameters in [0, 1] representing curve - P _i ,P _i+1 ith, (i+1)th control points on the spline curve along the airfoil direction - Q _j ,Q _j+1 jth, (j+1)th control points on the spline curve along the vertical direction - W _i ratio of chord length to the previous chord length on the spline curve - C(Cx, Cy) centre coordinate of the edge circle - _o, initial angle and range angle of the edge circle - N _jp ,N normal vector on the surface patch formed byP _i ,P _i+1,Q _j ,Q _j+1 control points - A ₁ toA ₆ 6 probing points for the rough phase alignment - A ₁ toA₆ contact points at the clear cut surface corresponding to theA ₁ toA ₆ - X(a _x,b _x,c _x),Y(a _y,b _y,c _y),Z(a _z,b _z,c _z) base vectors for CAD coordinate system with respect to the CCM coordinate system - O (O _x,O _y,O _z) origin of the workpiece in the CMM coordinate system - D measurement target points of the workpiece - r probe radius - M coordinate measurement target points in the CMM coordinate system - DM direction vector of the measurement target points in the CMM coordinate system - T ₁ transformation matrix of 4×4 for the rough phase alignment - T ₂ transformation matrix of 4×4 for the fine phase alignment - MM, MM _i measured data of the measurement target points - Lp Tschebyscheff norm of powerP     

基于五束光的三维多普勒测振仪设计

为了实现物体的三维振动分析测量,设计了一种基于五束激光的多普勒振动测量系统.该系统将五束激光汇聚到一个焦点,并照射到被反射膜覆盖的被测物体表面,经过反射后,散射光被光电二极管接收,并进入高精度信号处理系统,分别得到五路振动信息,通过计算机处理后,可以分别解析得到包括频率和振幅的三维振动信息.实验结果表明,该系统有望被应用于高精度的无接触振动测量.     

Vibrations of point-supported rectangular plates with variable thickness using a set of static tapered beam functions

This paper studies the free vibrations of point-supported rectangular plates with variable thickness using the Rayleigh–Ritz method. The domain of the plate is bounded by x=αa′, a′ (0α<1); y=βb′, b′ (0β<1) in the Cartesian coordinate system. The thickness of the plate varies continuously and is represented by a power function (x/a′)^s(y/b′)^t. Varieties of tapered rectangular plates can be described by giving s and t different values. A set of static tapered beam functions which are the solutions of a tapered beam (a unit width strip taken from the particular plate under consideration in one or the other direction parallel to its edges) under a Taylor series of static loads, are developed as the admissible functions for the vibration analysis of point-supported rectangular plates with variable thickness in one or two directions. The eigenfrequency equation is derived through the Rayleigh–Ritz approach, supplemented by the zero deflection conditions at the point-supports. A very simple program in common use has been compiled. The convergence study shows a small computational cost and the comparison with known solutions for point-supported rectangular plates with uniform thickness demonstrates the accuracy of the present method. Finally, some new numerical results are given, which may serve as the benchmarks for future research on the aforementioned problem.     

A metrological scanning force microscope

In this paper, the design, construction, and characterization of a metrological scanning force microscope (SFM) for the purposes of dimensional measurement of surface features is discussed. Using this instrument, precision measurements of engineering surfaces can be performed in air with subnanometer resolution. In this design, scanning of the specimen in the x and y planes and surface profiling in z-axis are each monitored directly by capacitance sensors. The present SFM is capable of a resolutions of approximately 0.1 nm over 15 μm range in z-axis and about 1 nm over 50 pm scanning range in x− and y-axes with a repeatability of less than 1 nm. The linearity error was measured to be within the noise level. Specimens ranging from soft polymeric films to polished zerodur are used to illustrate its metrological capability.     

A dual-purpose positioner-fixture for precision six-axis positioning and precision fixturing: Part II. Characterization and calibration

The kinematics, stiffness, and repeatability of a moving groove, dual-purpose positioner-fixture were determined experimentally. A dual-purpose positioner-fixture is an alignment device that may be operated in a fixture mode or a six-axis nanopositioning mode. When operated in fixture mode, experiments show standard deviation in repeatability of 11, 11, and 38 nm in x, y, and z; and 0.7, 0.3, and 0.3 μrad in θ_x, θ_y, and θ_z. The stiffness characteristics were shown to match predictions within 5%. When operated in nanopositioner mode, the device demonstrated 4 nm resolution and a range, of 40 μm × 40 μm × 80 μm in translation and 800 μrad × 800 μrad × 400 μrad in rotation. The fixture possesses a load capacity of 450 N and a natural frequency of 200 Hz when the fixture is preloaded to 225 N.     

A novel piezoelectric 6-component heavy force/moment sensor for huge heavy-load manipulator's gripper

This paper presents the development of a piezoelectric 6-component heavy force/moment sensor which may be used to detect forces F_x, F_y and F_z, and moments M_x, M_y and M_z on huge heavy-load manipulator's gripper, simultaneously. The structure of the sensor is newly modeled. Piezoelectric quartz is chosen as force sensing element to realize real-time measurement. In order to investigate the validity of the proposed method, a prototype of piezoelectric 6-component heavy force/moment sensor is developed, and a characteristic test of the piezoelectric 6-component heavy force/moment sensor is performed. The experiments show that the linearity of the sensor is no more than 1%, and the interference errors are less than 3%. The carrying capability of force sensor is improved greatly by using load distribution.     

The influence of the coordinate errors of setting sensors of a piezoelectric antenna on the accuracy of localizing sources of acoustic-emission signals

The main factors that affect the error of determining the coordinates of an acoustic-emission (AE) signal source are considered. The influence of errors of determining coordinates ±Δx _i and ±Δy _i of piezoelectric-antenna transducers on the AE-signal localization accuracy are analyzed. It is theoretically and experimentally proven that the errors in the coordinates of the transducers substantially influence the AE-signal localization accuracy, especially at a low sampling frequency of the analog-to-digital converter of the AE system’s measuring channel and when low-frequency AE transducers are used.     

Extended depth from focus reconstruction using NIH ImageJ plugins: Quality and resolution of elevation maps

In this work, NIH ImageJ plugins for extended depth‐from‐focus reconstructions (EDFR) based on spatial domain operations were compared and tested for usage optimization. Also, some preprocessing solutions for light microscopy image stacks were evaluated, suggesting a general routine for the ImageJ user to get reliable elevation maps from grayscale image stacks. Two reflected light microscope image stacks were used to test the EDFR plugins: one bright‐field image stack for the fracture of carbon‐epoxy composite and its darkfield corresponding stack at same (x,y,z) spatial coordinates. Image quality analysis consisted of the comparison of signal‐to‐noise ratio and resolution parameters with the consistence of elevation maps, based on roughness and fractal measurements. Darkfield illumination contributed to enhance the homogeneity of images in stack and resulting height maps, reducing the influence of digital image processing choices on the dispersion of topographic measurements. The subtract background filter, as a preprocessing tool, contributed to produce sharper focused images. In general, the increasing of kernel size for EDFR spatial domain‐based solutions will produce smooth height maps. Finally, this work has the main objective to establish suitable guidelines to generate elevation maps by light microscopy. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On the use of the geodesic metric in image analysis

Let X be a phase in a specimen. Given two arbitrary points x and y of X, let us define the number d_x(x, y) as follows: d_x(x, y) is the greatest lower bound of the lengths of the arcs in X ending at points x and y, if such arcs exist, and + ∞ if not. The function dX is a distance function, called ‘geodesic distance’. Note that if x and y belong to two disjoint connected components of X, d_x(x, y) = + ∞. In other words, d_x seems to be an appropriate distance function to deal with connectivity problems. In the metric space (X, d_x), all the classical morphological transformations (dilation, erosion, skeletonizations, etc.) can be defined. The geodesic distance d_x also provides rigourous definitions of topological transformations, which can be performed by automatic image analysers with the help of iterative algorithms. All these notions are illustrated with several examples (definition of the length of a fibre; automatic detection of cells having at least one nucleus, or having exactly a single nucleus; definitions of the geodesic centre and of the ends of a particle without holes, etc.). As an application, a general problem of segmentation is treated (automatic separation of balls in a polished section).     

A prism combination for near isotropic fluorescence excitation by total internal reflection

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is finding increasing application for selectively detecting molecules at or near a glass–water surface. As with all fluorescence methods, the efficiency of excitation of a fluorophore is potentially sensitive to the polarization state of the source. In TIRF, s‐polarized excitation produces an evanescent field that is perpendicular to the incident plane (y direction), whereas p‐polarized light generates a more complex pattern but one dominated by a field that is vertical to the surface (z direction). Thus, fluorophores whose absorption dipoles are fixed in the x direction are not favourably aligned for excitation. Here we describe a beam‐splitting prism arrangement that allows excitation by two orthogonal beams, thus giving isotropic excitation in the x–y plane with s‐polarized light. With linearly polarized light at the magic angle, near isotropic excitation in three dimensions should be achieved. This prism design should find application in polarized fluorescence microscopy to investigate the rotational motions of macromolecules or to minimize flickering of fluorescence emission arising from molecular rotations in single molecule studies.     

Investigation of Tool Wear and Surface Finish by Analyzing Vibration Signals in Turning Assab-705 Steel

Various occurrences in machining influence the machining dynamics and thus produce vibration in the cutting tool-workpiece arrangement. In this investigation, with tri-axial accelerometer mounted on the tool-holder in turning ASSAB-705 steel, vibration signals have been captured with and without cutting. The nature of vibrations arising in the cutting tool at different cutting conditions has been investigated. It has been observed that the RMS amplitude of vibration along all three axes for the increasing cutting speed was mixed in nature; however, an increasing trend was noticed in the vibrations along the feed, V_x and radial, V_y directions. The vibration along the main cutting direction, V_z was mixed, initiated by large vibration and then decreased until a particular cutting speed was reached and finally increased steadily. The feed vibration component, V_x has a similar response to the change of the workpiece surface roughness, while the other two components, V_y and V_z have the more coherent response to the rate of flank wear progression throughout the tool life. The natural frequency of different machine parts vibration has been found to be within the band of 0 Hz – 4.2 kHz, whereas the frequencies of different occurrences in turning varied between 98 Hz and 42 kHz.     

Massenersatz durch punktmassen in räumlichen Getrieben

Dynamic and kinetostatic analysis of three-dimensional mechanisms (i.e. mechanisms with intersecting or skew axes) can be brought about by using mass points. The objective of this paper is to give simple ways of determining such mass points with respect to their quantity and position by means of matrix calculus.Two rigid mass systems will be in quadratic equivalence, if their total masses are equal and their centers of mass coincide and their second moments of mass are equal with respect to a common system of coordinates. Under equal initial conditions, the two bodies will then perform equal motions if equal forces are acting upon them. Thus the total mass of a given three-dimensional rigid body may be substituted for by a finite number of mass points in rigid interconnection (Fig. 1). A mass point of quantity m_i at a point P_i(x_i, y_i, z_i) is determined by four defining quantities (m_i, x_i, y_i, z_i). The condition of equality of the total masses leads to one equation, the coincidence of the centers of mass results in three equations, and six equations follow from the equality of the second moments of mass. Thus the condition of quadratic equivalence will result in a system of non-linear equations (equation (4)) consisting of 1 + 3 + 6 = 10 scalar equations. These must be satisfied by four defining quantities per mass point. Nevertheless a three-dimensional body cannot be substituted for by three mass points with 3 × 4 = 12 defining quantities, since these three mass points are always on the same plane and so can only substitute for a mass system on one plane. The minimum number of mass points necessary is four. Of the total 4 × 4 = 16 defining quantities, 16 ? 10 = 6 can be chosen freely. After introducing suitable values for these six quantities, the ten unknown quantities can be calculated in a definite and explicit way (equations (6)–(15)) in spite of the above-mentioned system of equations being non-linear. It is not necessary to calculate the principle axes of inertia.As two further instances the substitution of a mass system on one plane by three mass points and the substitution of a rectilinear mass system by two mass points is discussed.     

Development of a microgripping system for handling of microcomponents

This paper reports the development of a semi-automatic microgripping system that consists of a microgripper and an x, y, z positioning system. The microgripper has two 1DOF fingers fabricated by an amorphous, soft magnetic material and is actuated electromagnetically. The microgripper is embedded in the 3DOF positioning system with the help of a stainless steel holder under an angle, which is manually adjusted, in respect to the working field. The position of the microgripper is observed optically and by three digital indicators¹ from Mitutoyo, which offer easy reading and continuous position tracking. All axes are actuated by step motors which allow precise positioning of the microparticles under manipulation. The microgripping system was tested in pick and place cases, under an optical microscope in atmospheric conditions. Optical fibres (125 μm in diameter) and bonding wires (50 μm in diameter) were handled. The temperature on the actuator, on the microgripper fingers and on the microgripper tips during manipulation was measured using K type (Ni/CrNi) thermocouples. The gripping force was evaluated as well.     

Design-based estimation of surface area in thick tissue sections of arbitrary orientation using virtual cycloids

Surface area is a first‐order stereological parameter with important biological applications, particularly at the intersection of biological phases. To deal with the inherent anisotropy of biological surfaces, state‐of‐the‐art design‐based methods require tissue rotation around at least one axis prior to sectioning. This paper describes the use of virtual cycloids for surface area estimation of objects and regions in thick, transparent tissue sections cut at any arbitrary (convenient) orientation. Based on the vertical section approach of Baddeley et al., the present approach specifies the vertical axis as the direction of sectioning (i.e. the direction perpendicular to the tissue section), and applies computer‐generated cycloids (virtual cycloids) with their minor axis parallel to the vertical axis. The number of surface‐cycloid intersections counted on focal planes scanned through the z‐axis is proportional to the surface area of interest in the tissue, with no further assumptions about size, shape or orientation. Optimal efficiency at each x–y location can be achieved by three virtual cycloids orientated with their major axes (which are parallel to the observation planes) mutually at an angle of 120°. The major practical advantage of the present approach is that estimates of total surface area (S) and surface density (S_V) can be obtained in tissue sections cut at any convenient orientation through the reference space.     

A parallel link end effector for scanning electrical discharge machining process

Because a parallel mechanism has a high-frequency response, multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), and high stiffness, it can be applied to an end effector for electrical discharge machining (EDM) with a scanning motion. A prototype has 3 DOF: two tilting angles around the x- and y-axes, and the movement in the z-direction. It consists of, a base plate, a stage, a constraint link, and three inchworm devices that act as links. The inchworm devices are connected with the stage and the base plate. The z-position and inclination of the stage are changed by adjusting the length of the inchworm devices. The electrode feeding is controlled by the combination of the steplike movement with the inchworm devices and continuous extension of piezos. The frequency response of the stage by the continuous extension of the piezos is up to 200 Hz. The positioning accuracy of the end effector is less than 30 μm in height and 0.04° in inclination. Some examples of EDM by the scanning motion are demonstrated.     

Generalized model of vibro-isolation systems with seated human body for single-axis transmission of vibration

A generalized model of vibration isolation systems with a human body in a seated position is developed. The system dynamics is modeled for a single-axis transmission of vibration, that is, longitudinal x, lateral y and vertical z, to limit whole-body vibration exposure. The developed model can be successfully employed to describe the propagation of vibration waves from the source to a vibrating object. The proposed mathematical model can be widely used to protect a human body against vibration.