System and method for providing distance-based pulses relative to motion of a surface scanned by a vision system

Abstract

This invention provides a system and method for estimating the time of a set of pulses based upon a plurality of position measurements of a moving object provided by a non-contacting sensor, such as a one-dimensional optical sensor that tracks movements of object features and reports position measurements with respect to time. Position measurements determine the estimated velocity. The velocity and position measurement allow the timing of a next pulse to be updated, based upon the time of the previous pulse. The pulse is output at the time of the last updated time before the first new position measurement received after the estimated pulse output time. The system allows pulses to be precisely delivered at predetermined motion distances. Where the distance is too short for the measurement rate, the system compares estimated pulse times to clock-generated pulse times and updates the clock-generated pulse times based upon the difference.