Assessing Ranging Errors as a Function of Azimuth in Laser Trackers and Tracers

Published

April 18, 2013

Author(s)

Balasubramanian Muralikrishnan, Vincent D. Lee, Christopher J. Blackburn, Daniel S. Sawyer, Steven D. Phillips, Wei Ren, Ben Hughes

Abstract

Tilt and radial error motion of a laser tracker head as it spins about the two axes results in small but measurable ranging and angle errors. The laser tracer, on the other hand, measures range with respect to the center of a high quality stationary sphere. It is therefore not expected to be influenced by the error motions of the carriage that carries the optics and the source, but the form error of the reference sphere, although extremely small, will be a contributor to the ranging errors. In this paper, we describe experiments to assess the magnitude of these ranging errors as a function of the horizontal angle in different laser trackers and a laser tracer.

Citation

Measurement Science & Technology

Volume

24

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

laser tracer, laser tracker, radial error, ranging error, wobble

Citation

Muralikrishnan, B. , Lee, V. , Blackburn, C. , Sawyer, D. , Phillips, S. , Ren, W. and Hughes, B. (2013), Assessing Ranging Errors as a Function of Azimuth in Laser Trackers and Tracers, Measurement Science & Technology (Accessed October 7, 2025)