Office:	401 Science & Engineering Bldg. The University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-2100
		Telephone:	(865) 974-9737
		Fax:	(865) 974-5459
		E-mail:	nali1@utk.edu
		Personal Web Page:	personal page 1

Current Project 1:  Reverse Engineering 0f Automotive Parts 

The process of duplicating an existing component by capturing the components physical dimensions is RE. RE is sometimes used to recreate objects in a computer aided design (CAD) model. With automotive parts, RE involves acquiring three dimensional position data in the point cloud using laser scanners, co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM), or computer tomography (CT).

This project consist of using a laser based range scanner to obtain multiple views of an object for complete 3D reconstruction off all surfaces. In this project we will use Rapidform's feature workbench to extract features from scanned data for the purpose of RE. We will also  use the data to generate CAD models from point cloud data.

Current Project 2: Structured Light 3D Reconstruction

In this project the Genex System will be used to create a reconstructed 3D object of selected automotive parts. The Genex System is a 3D Face Camera that uses a direct light ambient lighting on a subject or object to capture a front profile of the targeted view. The direct light emitted is known as structured lighting. Structured light is the projection of a light pattern (plane, grid, or more complex shape) at a known angle onto a object. This technique can be very useful for imaging and acquiring dimensional information.

The approach taken will be to use two different test parts and a specially designed test part. Ground truth information will be determined by a specially designed part. Various views of the object will taken at various angles. The part surface texture, material, shape complexity and other various factors will be taken into account when reconstructing the part. The final outcome of this project will be completed reconstruction of the selected automotive part.

Previous Work 1:  Microscopic Scanning

Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) are the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through micro-fabrication technology. In this project, we will survey current literature on MEMS technology for RE of small structures such as mechanical gears. A Confocal microscope will be used for data capture and analysis of small micrometer objects.

Previous Work 2: Feature Extraction of Range Images

 Edges are those places in an image that correspond to object boundaries. They are pixels where image brightness changes abruptly. An edge is a property attached to an individual pixel and is calculated from the image function behavior in a neighborhood of the pixel. It is a vector variable (magnitude of the gradient, direction of an edge).

In this project we implement several edge detection methods for feature extraction of range images.

Weekly Schedule

RESUME