In recent times a great deal of interest has been shown the computer v
ision and robotics research community within the remote (non-contact)
determination of configurations by using direct (active) range finding
. The presently developed range finder is based upon the use of laser
light and triangulation and aims at long distance high precision measu
rements. New image processing techniques are combined with high effici
ency electronics in order to provide reliable distance information. Fu
rthermore, a method is introduced in order to overcome the inherent 'm
issing parts' problem when the system is used as a profile scanner (se
cond scan method). Such a system could form part of a 3D-robot vision
system providing depth and obstacle avoidance information.