The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 18, 2005
Filed:
Nov. 25, 2002
Donald Golini, Rochester, NY (US);
Greg Forbes, N Epping Sydney, AU;
Paul Murphy, Rochester, NY (US);
Donald Golini, Rochester, NY (US);
Greg Forbes, N Epping Sydney, AU;
Paul Murphy, Rochester, NY (US);
QED Technologies, Inc., Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for accurately synthesizing a full-aperture data map from a series of overlapped sub-aperture data maps. In addition to conventional alignment uncertainties, a generalized compensation framework corrects a variety of errors, including compensators that are independent in each sub-aperture. Another class of compensators (interlocked) include coefficients that are the same across all the sub-apertures. A constrained least-squares optimization routine maximizes data consistency in sub-aperture overlap regions. The stitching algorithm includes constraints representative of the accuracies of the hardware to ensure that the results are within meaningful bounds. The constraints also enable the computation of estimates of uncertainties in the final results. The method therefore automatically calibrates the system, provides a full-aperture surface map, and an estimate of residual uncertainties. Therefore, larger surfaces can be tested with greater departures from a best-fit sphere to greater accuracy than was possible in the prior art.