Long distance non-contact high precision measurements.

In recent times a great deal of interest has been shown the computer vision 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 measurements. New image processing techniques are combined with high efficiency electronics in order to provide reliable distance information. Furthermore, a method is introduced in order to overcome the inherent 'missing parts' problem when the system is used as a profile scanner (second scan method). Such a system could form part of a 3D-robot vision system providing depth and obstacle avoidance information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]