Tight-tolerance part inspection, whether for industrial applications or national laboratory requirements, is generally performed using cartesian coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). High-data density measurement sets to characterize part geometries are achieved using tactile probing or dynamic scanning to ensure high-quality part inspection. Requirements such as high accuracy and high data density limit the class of measurement instrument that can produce the necessary and satisfactory results. High-accuracy measurements are limited to hard probing with low-data density, while high-data density may require an optical alternative with lower accuracy in the resulting measurement data. The question becomes: Is there an alternative technology which can yield a combination of these two sought-after qualities?

To address these issues, an articulating arm CMM (AACMM) with an integrated laser scanner is a frequently opted-for alternative. The research in this article investigates the accuracy, precision, and measurement capability associated with laser scanning to generate point clouds of common, unclassified CMM hemispherical shell artifacts used in a nuclear weapons laboratory.

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