A Unifying Framework for Tolerance Analysis in Sensing, Design, and Manufacturing

In this work we address the problem of tolerance representation and analysis across the domains of industrial inspection using sensed data, CAD design, and manufacturing. Instead of using geometric primitives in CAD models to define and represent tolerances, we propose the use of stronger methods that are completely based on the manufacturing knowledge for the objects to be inspected. We guide our sensing strategies based on the manufacturing process plans for the parts that are to be inspected and define, compute, and analyze the tolerances of the parts based on the uncertainty in the sensed data along the different tool paths of the sensed part. We believe that our new approach is the best way to unify tolerances across sensing, CAD, and CAM, as it captures the manufacturing knowledge of the parts to be inspected, as opposed to just CAD geometric representations. IThis work was supported by ARPA grant N00014-91-J-4123, NSF grant CDA 9024721. All opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies. This report was submitted as a paper to the 1995 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. A Unifying Framework for Tolerance Analysis in Sensing, Design, and Manufacturing Tarek M. Sobh, Thomas C. Henderson, and Frederic Zana* Department of Computer Science University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112