REVERSE ENGINEERING FROM UNIDIRECTIONAL CMM SCAN DATA

The design and manufacture of sculptured surfaces using the reverse en gineering (RE) approach is popular in industry. RE requires the defini tion of surfaces, a process that is usually performed using a coordina te measuring machine (CMM). However, the present methods for surface m odel reproduction require a high density of data points, resulting in increased manufacturing times. This paper proposes a method to reduce the manufacturing times. In this method constrained least-square fitti ng techniques are employed. The splines are then blended to a surface model by a spline segment matching and subdividing algorithm. A model refinement method is proposed, that uses only a fraction of the data p oints. Experimental results and future developments are also included.