Noncontact roughness measurement of turned parts using machine vision

The surface roughness of turned parts is usually measured using the conventional stylus type instruments. These instruments, although widely accepted, have several limitations such as low speed measurement, contacting in nature, requiring vibration-free environment, etc. Machine vision methods of roughness measurement are being developed worldwide due to their inherent advantages, including noncontact measurement, high information content, rapid measurement, and surface measurement capability. In past research, area-based light scattering method and gray scale line intensity measurement have been developed for roughness assessment using machine vision. Such methods, however, produced redundant data when applied to measure roughness of turned parts. In this paper, an alternative method of roughness measurement using the 2-D profile extracted from an edge image of the workpiece surface is proposed. Comparison with a stylus type instrument shows a maximum difference of 10% in the measurement of average roughness R _a using the vision method.