Characteristics of the Laser Displacement Sensor Using Optical Triangulation Method

광삼각법을 이용한 레이저 변위 센서의 특성 연구

Recently, a laser displacement sensor is widely used for the manufacturing automation. The sensor is generally composed of a diode laser and a light receiving device. The diode laser emits a laser beam and the receiving device detects the light reflected from the measured object. The object position is obtained based upon triangulation method. As a light receiving device, a PSD is usually utilized since its structure is very simple and rugged and has a high accuracy. Although the theoretical relationship for this sensor had been developed, the characteristics of the sensor have not been much experimentally studied. In this paper, several experimental results will presented. The measurement accuracy is affected by the surface conditions such as the reflectance characteristics, the angle of the object's surface and the laser intensity. In addition, it is found that the PSD and the signal processing circuit have nonlinearities and showed that those nonlinearities can be reduced by controlling the emitting laser intensity.