Abstract
A new type of range sensing method RORS (Riken Optical Range Sensing Method) have been developed. A mirror tunnel is placed between an observation lens and an object to be measured; a light beam is projected through the observation lens on to the object; the bright spot on the object is projected to the observation lens after reflected by the mirror. The observation condition can be considered as equivalent to that of the case of a triangulation in which two observation lenses are arranged at the symmetrical positions with respect to the observation lens against to the mirror. A position of the bright spot can be determined according to the triangulation by detecting the positions of bright spot image on the observation plane. It is possible to reduce the width of an optical system to remarkably smaller than the effective base line length. From the theoretical investigations and the basic experiments, it is proved that the RORS can provide a high precision and miniaturized range sensor suitable for such as a proximity sensor, a position detector and so on in the field of shape measurement, automatic control, robotics and so forth.
