A real-time multi-sensor 3D surface shape measurement system using fringe analysis

This thesis presents a state-of-the-art multi-sensor, 3D surface shape measurement system that is based upon fringe projection/analysis and which operates at speeds approaching real-time. The research programme was carried out as part of MEGURATH (www.megurath.org), a collaborative research project with the aim of improving the treatment of cancer by radiotherapy. The aim of this research programme was to develop a real-time, multi-sensor 3D surface shape measurement system that is based on fringe analysis, which provides the flexibility to choose from amongst several different fringe profilometry methods and to manipulate their settings interactively. The system has been designed specifically to measure dynamic 3D human body surface shape and to act as an enabling technology for the purpose of performing Metrology Guided Radiotherapy (MGRT). However, the system has a wide variety of other potential applications, including 3D modelling and visualisation, verbatim replication, reverse engineering and industrial inspection. It can also be used as a rapid prototyping tool for algorithm development and testing, within the field of fringe pattern profilometry. The system that has been developed provides single, or multi-sensor, measurement modes that are adaptable to the specific requirements of a desired application. The multi-sensor mode can be useful for covering a larger measurement area, by providing a multi-viewpoint measurement. The overall measurement accuracy of the system is better than O.5mm, with measurement speeds of up to 3 million XYZ points/second using the single-sensor mode and rising to up to 4.6 million XYZ points/second when measuring in parallel using the three sensor multi-sensor mode. In addition the system provides a wide-ranging catalogue of fringe profilometry methods and techniques, that enables the reconstruction of 3D information through an interactive user selection of 183 possible different paths of main combinations. The research aspects behind the development of the system are presented in this thesis, along with the author's contribution to this field of research, which has included the provision of a comprehensive framework for producing such a novel optical profilometry system, and the specific techniques that were developed to fulfil the aims of this research programme. This mainly included the following advanced methods: a transversal calibration method for the optical system, an adaptive filtering technique for the Fourier Transform Profilometry (FTP) method, and a method to synthetically restore the locations of the triangulation spots. Similarly, potential applications for the system have been presented and feasibility and accuracy analyses have been conducted, presenting both qualitative and quantitative measurement results. To this end, the high robustness levels exhibited by the system have been demonstrated (in terms of adaptability, accuracy and measurement capability) by performing extensive real experiments and laboratory testing. Finally, a number of potential future system developments are described, with the intention of further extending the system capabilities