Citation: Lv, F.; Hu, C.; Sun, H.; Li, W.
Study on Dynamic Performance
Parameters of Laser Tracker Based on
Self-Developed Circular Trajectory
Generator System. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13,
167. https://doi.org/10.3390/
app13010167
Academic Editor: Chien-Hung Liu
Received: 29 November 2022
Revised: 17 December 2022
Accepted: 21 December 2022
Published: 23 December 2022
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Article
Study on Dynamic Performance Parameters of Laser Tracker
Based on Self-Developed Circular Trajectory Generator System
Fei Lv
1
, Chang’an Hu
2,
* , Haifeng Sun
3
and Wanze Li
2
1
Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130, China
2
National Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology, Chengdu 610021, China
3
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
* Correspondence: jixiedcd@nimtt.com
Abstract:
The laser tracker has characteristics of high measurement accuracy and wide measurement
range. Laser tracker technology, as an effectively large-scale measuring approach, plays a critical role
in dynamic measurement. Currently, the static performance of laser trackers has been well studied.
However, the dynamic characteristics of the laser tracker remain unclear in terms of evaluating
its dynamic performance. The circular trajectory generator measurement system can quantify the
dynamic performance of the laser tracker. We developed a standard circular trajectory generator
using a stable servo system and then conducted an in-depth study on the dynamic performance of the
laser tracker through statistical analysis. Numerous experiments have shown that if the laser tracker
is set at equal spacing, the dynamic indication error is smallest when the measurement distance is
3 m, indicating that the fitted diameter at a distance of 3 m is closest to the diameter of the circular
trajectory generator. If the laser tracker is set with equal sampling frequency, the dynamic indication
error is smallest when the measurement distance is 5 m. When the circular trajectory generator is at
low speed, the measurement spacing of sampling points of the laser tracker is fixed proportional to
the number of measurement points, while at low or high speed the sampling frequency of the laser
tracker is fixed proportionally to the number of measurement points. These conclusions will facilitate
the application of the laser tracker in dynamic measurement.
Keywords:
laser tracker; circular trajectory generator; dynamic measurement; dynamic limit
velocity; dynamic indication error; dynamic indication variable; equal spacing measurement; equal
frequency measurement
1. Introduction
The static measurement technology has matured after decades of development, and
the demand for change in industrial engineering measurement has gradually triggered an
increase in the research of dynamic measurement technology. Moreover, we have witnessed
a booming development in the research on dynamic mechanics, dynamic flow, dynamic
temperature, dynamic humidity, dynamic pressure, dynamic geometric measurement, and
so forth. The United States and the former Soviet Union performed successful dynamic
measurements in the 1960s and 1970s. European countries conducted a host of studies
on dynamic measurement tracing in the 1990s [
1
]. Over the past two decades, China
has developed some devices for dynamic measurement, but it still lags behind Western
developed countries.
The current dynamic measurement systems are mainly classified into the total sta-
tion measurement system, digital photogrammetry system, indoor GPS measurement
system, laser tracker measurement system, and laser interference tracker measurement
system. In the past 10 years, Chinese scholars have made some progress in developing
dynamic measurement technology. Gan Xiaochuan et al. [
2
] explored the calibration of
target measurement capabilities of large-size measurement systems. In the literature [
3
], the
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 167. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010167 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
