Abb Schweiz Ag

Martin Kefer

Jiafan Zhang

Cheng Li

Hao Gu

Jihuan Tian

An apparatus for detecting tilt of a fixture and method thereof. The apparatus includes a visible element having a pattern visibly distinguishable from its surrounding area; a part having a plane reflective surface being configured to be engaged with the fixture in alignment and being arranged to reflect light beams propagating directly from the visible element so as to produce a first virtual image of the visible element; an image capture device being disposed at same side of the visible element with respective to the part having a plane reflective surface and being configured to have a field of view covering the first virtual image and a second virtual image of the visible element produced by the part having a plane reflective surface, wherein the second virtual image was produced where the part having a plane reflective surface assumed a levelling orientation; and a controller being adapted for detecting tilt of the fixture using a deviation of the first virtual image from the second virtual image of the visible element in the field of view of the image capture device. By using the apparatus or method according to present invention, no optical means, such as lens, is used for converging the light beams projected by the visible element. It is thus possible to facilitate the assembly of the apparatus, miniaturize the apparatus and reduce costs thereof.

Tilt detection apparatus and method thereof

It is therefore an objective to provide an object multi-perspective inspection apparatus and a method therefor. The apparatus includes an image capture device; an inspection site and at least two reflection devices, being arranged for reflecting simultaneously to the image capture device at least two different side views of the object located in the inspection site; wherein: the image capture device has a field of view including the at least two different side views of the reflection. By introducing reflection devices into the inspection apparatus to enable the image capture device to 'see' the part from multiple views at once, multiple surfaces can be inspected at once, in one image frame, without having the need to reposition the reflection device, the camera and/or the object for every single surface. There are more than one reflection devices placed in the camera's field of view to assist the inspection process by exploiting otherwise hidden surfaces of any given solid object. The effort inspecting every single part form multiple sides is reduced. Therefore, the period of the inspection cycle time can be reduced and inspection on the level of multi-surfaces becomes possible increasing overall quality.

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Shanghai, China

Martin Kefer