Toward an automatic method of geometric error analysis

Abstract In this paper a method of determining geometric error components from a large amount of sensed (measured) data in line with a given tolerancing scheme is described. The approach is based on the deformation of a nominal CAD model to yield a deformation vector which quantifies the deviations in specified and constrained control parameters. The proposed advantages of this approach are that it allows analysis of measured data against a CAD model without relating specific data to set model features and that specific error modes are isolated in line with the tolerances applied to the CAD model.