Development of swinging part profilometer for optics

Abstract

A new surface metrology instrument, the ‘Swinging Part Profilometer’ (SPP), has been developed for in-situ measurement of optics undergoing robot-processing in the ground (non-specular) state. In this paper, we present the hardware-design of the SPP, together with software for hardware-control, data-acquisition and surface-reconstruction. First results on a sample part are presented, compared with interferometric metrology, and error-contributions considered. Notably, during each individual scan of a measurement-cycle, the <i>probe remains fixed</i>. This lends itself to automated probe-deployment by the same robot as performs surface-processing, as probe stability is required on only the time-scale for a single scan.