The invention relates generally to a system used to produce a prototype part and subsequently an accurate design specification for a fluid or gas handling system/hose and or tube assembly, followed by the subsequent communication of that specification into an ordering interface that processes the specification into a usable format as a means to accurately produce and re-create the original specification in a remote location by a specific manufacturing process, in order to supply the originator of the design an accurate, working part, produced in the specified materials in a rapid, convenient and cost effective manner. The process has global applications in various industries, markets and vehicle or machinery types, particularly where it is inconvenient or prohibitively expensive to have the work performed on-site by a technician.

A calibrated three-dimensional optical measuring apparatus for three-dimensional measurement of geometric parameters of a rope has a frame defining and arranged around a rope receiving cavity. Image acquisition devices acquiring digital images of regions of an outer surface of the rope are fixed to the frame and arranged around the rope when the calibrated three-dimensional optical measuring apparatus receives the rope in the rope receiving cavity. An electronic digital image processing device processes a multiplicity of digital images and obtains a three-dimensional photogrammetric reconstruction of points of the digital images of the rope. Having defined a circumferential direction running around a main extension axis of the rope and lying on a plane incident or perpendicular to the main extension axis of the rope, the image acquisition devices are arranged on the frame circumferentially spaced apart from one another along the circumferential direction. A lighting device is arranged along the circumferential direction between a pair of adjacent image acquisition devices.

Apparatuses, systems and methods associated with a metrology system for high-speed, non-contact coordinate measurements of parts are disclosed herein. In embodiments, the metrology system includes a metrology bridge to be coupled to a measurement assembly. The measurement assembly may include a stage moveable across multiple independent axes. The bridge may include a housing, mounting members coupled to the housing, and a plurality of sensors mounted within the housing. The mounting members may rotatably couple the housing to the measurement assembly. Further, sensor elements of the plurality of sensor devices may be aligned along a length of the housing and may be directed out of the housing.

A settlement monitoring system 1 for a construction site 400, the system 1 comprising an elongate liquid vessel 100, a continuous body of liquid 110 within the vessel 100, a first sensor 201 housed within a first portion of the vessel, and at least one additional sensor 202 206 housed within a second portion of the liquid vessel 100, wherein the sensors 201-206 are submerged within the liquid 110 and each sensor 201-206 is capable of detecting a pressure of the liquid 110, wherein in use the first portion of the liquid vessel 100 is configured to be situated at a known reference point of the site 400, the second portion is configured to be embedded within the ground 416, and the pressures are communicated to a surface system 308, the surface system 308 being configured to record the pressures.

A flatness measurement unit is a flatness measurement unit to be placed on a shelf for measuring flatness relating to the degree of deviation from a state in which four predetermined points on the shelf are present on the same plane. The flatness measurement unit includes: a body frame; and four contact sections dispersedly disposed on the body frame and provided so as to be in contact with the respective four predetermined points on the shelf. The four contact sections include two first contact sections not located diagonally and two second contact sections other than the first contact sections. The center of gravity of the flatness measurement unit is positioned in an area containing the two first contact sections, among four areas defined by two diagonal lines each passing through the corresponding first contact section and the corresponding second contact section that are located diagonally.

A coordinate measurement machine includes a column that can move relative to a placement surface on which a workpiece is placed, a guide part that is provided on the placement surface, the guide part guiding the column, a scale of a linear encoder that is supported on a side surface of the guide part, and detectors that are provided on the column, the detectors detecting a relative displacement with respect to the scale. The detectors detect a displacement of the column in each of a moving direction and a vertical direction. A coordinate measurement machine further includes a deformation amount acquisition part that acquires an amount of deformation of the guide part relative to the scale on the basis of detection results of the detectors.

Methods are described for measuring series of nominally identical production workpieces on a dimensional measuring apparatus such as a coordinate measuring machine. One master workpiece of the series is calibrated, to provide correction values which are used to build an error map of the measuring apparatus. This map is used to correct measurements not only of subsequent nominally identical workpieces of the same series, but also of multiple different subsequent series of different workpieces. Each subsequent series also has a master workpiece which is calibrated and used to further build the error map. As this process is repeated over time, the error map becomes more and more densely populated. In due course, it becomes possible to dispense with the use of a calibrated master workpiece, because measurements can be corrected using error values which already exist in the error map.

A sensor device for measuring a temperature in a photovoltaic laminate structure and a sensor system comprising such a sensor device is provided. The sensor device includes a capillary for being embedded in the laminate structure between two layers thereof, a medium arranged within the capillary, and an optical fiber extending through the capillary and surrounded by the medium. At least a portion of the optical fiber has temperature-dependent transmission characteristics.

Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided in a vehicle having a Hitch Articulation Angle (HAA) calculation system for estimating an HAA between the vehicle and a towed trailer. The method includes: receiving a plurality of ultrasonic sensor (USS) range measurements for a first USS on the vehicle while the vehicle is towing the trailer in a forward direction; receiving a plurality of HAA values calculated using geometric equations or a kinematic model that correspond to the plurality of USS range measurements; receiving a USS range measurement for the first USS while the vehicle is operating in a reverse direction or experiencing a high HAA but not from a second USS; estimating an HAA value from the USS range measurement by applying the USS curve characteristics for the first USS; and providing the estimated HAA value to a vehicle motion control system for use in controlling vehicle and trailer motion.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for the in-situ determination of vehicle wheel position using an inertial measurement unit (IMU). In one aspect as the wheel is rotating, gyroscope measurements are used to find a slip angle defined between the direction of wheel travel and the direction of vehicle travel, to determine a toe alignment condition for the wheel. System and methods are also presented for using an accelerometer to measure slip angle and camber angle. Using an accelerometer or gyroscope, instantaneous wheel angle measurements can also be made to predict vehicle movement, and aid in autonomous steering and in-situ wheel alignment adjustments.