The evolution of large-scale dimensional metrology from the ......ORIGINAL ARTICLE The evolution of large-scale dimensional metrology from the perspective of scientific articles and

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The evolution of large-scale dimensional metrologyfrom the perspective of scientific articles and patents

Fiorenzo Franceschini & Domenico Maisano

Received: 16 May 2013 /Accepted: 17 September 2013 /Published online: 5 October 2013# Springer-Verlag London 2013

Abstract In the last two decades, there has been a greatdevelopment of the measuring systems in the field of large-scale dimensional metrology (LSDM), as also proved by thesignificant growth of the scientific literature. The aim of thispaper is to analyze the LSDM scientific literature, from thedual perspective of scientific articles and patents, and estimatetheir impact in terms of amount of documents and relevantcitations. In detail, this study investigates similarities anddifferences between articles and patents, as regards their dom-inant technologies and temporal distribution, and identifies (1)the major scientific journals and conference proceedings con-taining LSDM articles and (2) the major assignees of LSDMpatents. Two main results emerge from the analysis: (a) im-portant inventions concerning new LSDM systems were de-posited before the end of twentieth century, while scientificarticles have “bloomed” only in the last decade, and (b) thevast majority of patents concern inventions related to the laser-interferometry technology, while articles are divided moreevenly among available technologies, with an important roleplayed by the less accurate but more affordable ones, such asphotogrammetry or structured-light scanning.

Keywords Large-scale dimensional metrology . Largevolumemetrology . Scientific publications . Patent literature .

Citation impact . Dominant technology

1 Introduction

In the last two decades, there has been a rapid growth of large-scale dimensional metrology (LSDM) instruments, for mea-suring medium- to large-sized objects (i.e. objects with lineardimensions ranging from tens to hundreds of meters [1]),where accuracy levels of a few tenths of a millimetre aregenerally tolerated [2, 3]. These systems usually support theassembly phase and/or dimensional compliance test on largevolume objects, in situ. Table 1 sketches the evolution of themajor LSDM instruments, with a brief description of theircharacteristics. For more information on LSDM instrumentsand their technologies (e.g. technical features, usual applica-tions, metrological performance, cost, etc.), we refer the readerto the extensive reviews [3–6].

The aim of this paper is a wide-range analysis of theexisting scientific literature, from the dual perspective of (1)scientific publications, which reflect the interest of the(academic) scientific community, and (2) patents, which re-flect the well-established (at industrial level) technologies orthe emerging ones [7].

The analysis tries to delineate the technological and scien-tific evolution of LSDM systems in the last 20–30 years, bycomparing these two types of outcomes and highlightingsimilarities and, more interestingly, differences and counter-tendencies.

We emphasize that the academic literature—which generallyconsists of journal articles, conference proceedings, book chap-ters and monographs—and the patent literature are not neces-sarily dependent on each other, as also evidenced by the rela-tively low incidence of patent citations in scientific publicationsand vice versa [8, 9]. This is the key reason for which combiningthese two analysis perspectives may lead to interesting results.

In the literature, there are many cases in which scientificpublications and patents are investigated in conjunction, forinstance, the contributions by Van Looy et al. [10], Czarnitzki

F. Franceschini (*) :D. MaisanoDIGEP (Department of Management and Production Engineering),Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino,Italye-mail: [email protected]

D. Maisanoe-mail: [email protected]

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 70:887–909DOI 10.1007/s00170-013-5317-y

et al. [11], Breschi and Catalini [12], Franceschini et al. [13]and many others. However, this type of analysis is a novelty inthe LSDM field.

Our study focuses on the scientific publications and patentsin the LSDM field and the citations that they obtained, respec-tively from other publications and patents. While the citationsthat a scientific publication obtains from other publicationsdepict its impact/diffusion within scientific community [14],the citations that a patent obtains from other patents can be

indicative of its technological importance or even (potential)market value and profitability [15]. Furthermore, this studymakes it possible to identify the LSDM articles and patents ofgreater impact, the major scientific journals and conferenceproceedings and the major patent assignees.

The rest of the paper is structured in three sections. “Sec-tion 2” focuses on data collection and data cleaning, aimed atselecting a portfolio of documents as comprehensive as pos-sible of the state of the art on LSDM. “Section 3” briefly

Table 1 List of the main LSDMinstruments, with a brief descrip-tion of their features

Instruments are sorted chrono-logically according to the ap-proximate time of theirintroduction

Instrument Introductiontime

Short description

Tapes/sticks Thousandsyears ago

Reference artefacts used for measuring the length of anobject directly.

Theodolite ≈1,700 It consists of a movable telescope mounted within twoperpendicular axes—a horizontal and a vertical one.When the telescope is pointed at a target point of interest,the angles with respect to each of these axes can bemeasured with large precision.

Contact-probe coordinatemeasuring machine (CMM)

1960s This device is used for measuring the geometricalcharacteristics of an object. It is generally composed ofthreemoving axes, which are orthogonal to each other ina typical three dimensional coordinate system.Measurements are defined by a mechanical contact-probe attached to the third moving axis.

Total station Early 1970s It is a sort of theodolite integrated with an ElectronicDistance Meter (EDM) to read angles and distancesfrom the instrument to a point of interest. System setup ispartially automated and, when measuring, there is noneed for an assistant staff member, as the operator maycontrol the total station from the observed point.

3D scanners based on structuredlight, laser or photogrammetry

1990s These instruments measure the three-dimensional shape ofan object by processing images—taken by two or morecameras—of (1) encoded light patterns, (2) laser beamsor (3) targets projected on the object surface.Measurements are characterized by a high level ofautomation.

Optical-probe CMM 1990s It is a classical CMM equipped with a contactless optical-probe, which allows the localization of a high densitycloud of points on the object surface. Measurements areless accurate but considerably faster than those carriedout with a contact-probe.

Laser tracker, tracer and radar 1990s andearly2000s

These instruments allow the accurate localization of atarget on the surface of the object of interest, bymeasuring mutual angles and distances. Distancemeasurements are generally based on the laser-interferometric and/or Absolute Distance Meter (ADM)technology.

Distributed LSDM systems 2000s Unlike the previous instruments, which can be classified as“single-station”, these ones consist of a network ofdevices distributed around the measurement volume.The spatial coordinates of targets, in contact with theobject of interest, are determined by two localizationtechniques: (1) multilateration (based on distancesbetween targets and network devices) and (2)triangulation (based on angles between targets andnetwork devices). Distributed systems may rely ondifferent technologies (e.g. ultrasonic, photogrammetric,optical, etc.).

888 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 70:887–909

describes the methodology of analysis of the selected portfolioand presents the analysis results in detail. Analysis can be splitin three parts: (1) evaluation of the dominant technologies, (2)study of the evolution of LSDM systems in the last 20–30years, from the double perspective of scientific publicationsand patents and (3) identification of the main scientificjournals, conference proceedings and patent assignees in thisfield.

The final section summarizes the results of the study,highlighting the original contributions, implications andlimitations.

2 Data collection

The objective of data collection is to identify a comprehensiveset of scientific articles and patents in the LSDM literature.

Articles were collected through the Scopus database(Scopus [16]). We chose this database for two reasons: (1) inthe field of Engineering Science, Scopus’ coverage is superiorto that of Web of Science [17], and (2) Scopus is much moreaccurate than Google Scholar database [18]. A limitation ofScopus is that it does not index books or book chapters butonly articles from leading journals and conference proceed-ings, which, however, contain the vast majority of the relevantLSDM publications.

Patents are collected using the Questel-Orbit database,which integrates patent statistics from more than 95 nationaland international patent authorities (Questel [19]), e.g. EPO(European Patent Office), USPTO (United States Patent andTrademark Office), WIPO (World Intellectual Property Orga-nization), JPO (Japan Patent Office), CPO (China Patent andTrademark Office), etc.

For both articles and patents, databases were queried on 8March 2013, with the following string: «(“large scale * me-trology” OR “large scale * measur*” OR “large volume *metrology” OR “large volume * measur*”) OR {(“largescale” OR “large volume”) AND [“laser tracker” OR“photogrammetr*” OR “CMM” OR “coordinate measur*”OR “structured light scan*”]}», searching into title, abstractor keywords of each document. Please note that “*” is awildcard character, while “AND” and “OR” are basic Booleanoperators.

The search string is deliberately general, so as to reduce so-called false negatives, i.e. documents that deal with LSDM butare ignored by databases because they do not meet the searchquery. The price to pay to reduce “false negatives” is identi-fying a large number of “false positives”, i.e. documents thatdo not concern LSDM but meet the search query [20]. Toreduce “false positives”, the documents returned by databaseswere cleaned manually: After examining title, abstract andcontents, we excluded those documents not concerning

LSDM and the uncertain ones, e.g. some unclear articles/patents in Russian or Chinese language only.

Regarding articles, Scopus returned 555 articles, whichwere reduced to 180 after data cleaning. Selected articles arereported in Table 6, in Appendix. Regarding patents, Questel-Orbit returned 334 patents, which were reduced to 53 afterdata cleaning (reported in Table 7, in Appendix). For dupli-cated records, i.e. patents filed in multiple authorities, weconsidered the ones with the oldest “priority date”.

One way to further reduce “false negatives” could be toexpand the portfolio of cleaned documents, by including their“neighbours”, i.e. those documents that cite or are cited bythem, and then cleaning these additional documents manually.Of course, this operation would be significantly time-consuming.

During the manual cleaning activity, documents were alsoclassified according to two criteria: (1) dominant technologyand (2) typology of output. The dominant-technology classi-fication is illustrated in Table 2. While not claiming to beexhaustive, it includes the main technologies of the vastmajority of LSDM systems, in agreement with the literaturereview by Peggs et al. [5].

Documents concerning minor technologies (e.g. moirépatterns or capacitive probes, see respectively Art31 andArt143 in Table 6) or independent of a specific tech-nology (e.g. documents about general measurement pro-cedures or literature reviews) fall into the class h–N/A.

Table 3 illustrates the typology-of-output classification.As well as the previous classification, it adapts to botharticles and patents. It is reasonable to expect that most ofthe patents will fall into the first three classes (A–Descrip-tion of the measuring system, B–New hardware compo-nent(s) and C–New application/working procedure), whilescientific articles will be distributed more uniformlyamong the seven classes.

3 Data analysis

3.1 Overall data analysis

Analyzing the two portfolios of articles and patents (reportedin Tables 6 and 7), it is possible to identify the most populartechnologies, both from the point of view of the total numberof documents (P) and that of the total number of citationsobtained (C ). P is a proxy of the amount of research in thescientific literature, whileC reflects its impact on the scientificcommunity or industry.

For each article, we considered the citations obtained fromother articles while, for each patent, those obtained from otherpatents, up to the moment of data collection (8 March 2013).In the following subsections, articles and patents will beanalyzed separately.

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 70:887–909 889

3.1.1 Dominant-technology classification

From chart (1) in Fig. 1, we note that articles are quite evenlydistributed among the dominant-technology classes. For ex-ample, the number of articles is not very different for classesa–Laser-interferometry/ADM, b–Photogrammetry and e–Theodolite/RLAT.

Regarding citations (see chart (2)), over half of the totalcitations are in the class h–N/A, being mainly captured byliterature reviews, which are independent of a specific tech-nology and tend to get more citations than standard researcharticles. Excluding the class h–N/A, citations are dividedbetween the remaining technology classes in a fairly consis-tent way with articles.

Chart (3) illustrates the number of patents in the dominant-technology classes and shows a clear predominance of theclass a–Laser-interferometry/ADM. Analyzing the patents inthis class, we noticed that most of them concern laser-trackers.

Inventions in the class b–Photogrammetry are relatively morecited than the others (see chart (4)). This is symptomatic of thegreat industrial interest for this technology, even in contextsoutside of LSDM (e.g. videogame and home-entertainment).The class h–N/A includes many citations, most of which (i.e.113) come from a single outstandingly cited patent (i.e. Pat3 inTable 7), which is independent of a specific technology.

3.1.2 Typology-of-output classification

As regards articles, they seem quite evenly distributed amongclasses (see chart (1) in Fig. 2), with the predominance of

Table 2 Dominant-technology classes for classifying documents (arti-cles and patents)

Dominanttechnology

Description

a–Laser-interferometry/ADM

Documents about measuring systems based on thelaser-interferometric and/or Absolute DistanceMeter (ADM) technology, or similar ones.

b–Photogrammetry Documents about measuring systems based onphotogrammetric technology, in which one ormore targets are localized using at least twocameras.

c–Ultrasound Documents about measuring systems in which oneor more targets are localized by using thedistances estimated by the time-of-flight ofultrasonic signals from/to three or more“landmarks”, with known spatial position andorientation.

d–CMM Documents about coordinate measuring machines(CMMs) for LSDM applications (e.g. gantry orhorizontal-arm CMMs).

e–Theodolite/R-LAT Documents about systems based on classictheodolites or rotary-laser automatic theodolites(R-LATs), such as the Nikon iGPS.

f–Structured-lightscanning

Documents about measuring systems based on theprojection of structured-light (e.g. encodedpatterns) on the surface of the object to bemeasured, and analysis of the images taken bytwo or more cameras.

g–Hybrid Documents about measuring systems equippedwith components derived from multipletechnologies, implementing multi-sensor datafusion techniques.

h–N/A Not applicable: documents concerning minortechnologies or independent of a specifictechnology (e.g. documents about genericmeasurement procedures or literature reviews).

Table 3 Typology-of-output classes for classifying documents (articlesand patents)

Typology of output Description

A–Description of themeasuring system

Detailed description of a new LSDMsystem, its technical features,functionality, measurement procedureand (dis)advantages with respect to othersystems.

B–New hardwarecomponent(s)

Development and characterization of newhardware components, which replace orcomplement those of an existingmeasuring system, improving itsfunctionality and performance.

C–New application/working procedure

Description of novel measurementprocedures or applications, aimed atexpanding and improving thefunctionality and/or performance of anexisting measuring system. Theseprocedures/applications generally requireadditional external hardware equipment.

D–Development of systemset-up/calibration

Illustration of a new procedure/algorithmaimed at enhancing the system set-up/calibration stage of an existing measuringsystem.

E–Optimization ofmeasurement operations

Improvement of the efficiency/effectivenessof measurement operations and datamanagement. This optimization istypically software-based and does notimply any change in the measuringsystem’s hardware or the introduction ofexternal hardware.

F–Performance analysis Analysis of the performance of an existentmeasuring system (e.g. evaluation ofmetrological characteristics, such asrepeatability, accuracy, measurementuncertainty, sampling rate, etc.), based onempirical data or simulations. It mayinclude performance verificationaccording to standards and/orcomparison with other measuringsystems.

G–Literature review Literature review of the LSDM measuringsystems or those based on a specifictechnology.


documents concerning classes C–New application/workingprocedure and F–Performance analysis. There is a relativelylow fraction of articles in the classes A–Description of themeasuring system and B–New hardware component(s), whichconcern the construction of new hardware equipment. Notsurprisingly, nearly half of the total citations fall in the classG–Literature review (see chart (2)). Excluding this class, thedistribution of citations among the remaining classes is quitein line with that of the articles (see chart (1)).

Regarding patents, the first three classes (A–Description ofthe measuring system, B–New hardware component(s) andC–New application/working procedure) predominate, bothfrom the viewpoint of P and C (see charts (3) and (4)).

The typical industrial sectors in which LSDM systems areused can be identified by examining in more detail the docu-ments in the class C–New application/working procedure.Almost all the patents examined concern the assembly phaseof aircrafts. As for articles, nearly half of the applicationsconcern the aircraft industry; other active sectors are thoserelated to the assembly phase of ship hulls and railway equip-ments, measurement and control of telescope components,part alignment and measurement in specific manufacturingprocesses (e.g. forming, welding, etc.).

3.1.3 “Technology-typology” maps

The maps in Fig. 3 aggregate the results of the dominant-technology and typology-of-output classifications. Consis-tently with the results presented in “Sections 3.1.1 and3.1.2”, it can be noticed that, as regards the patents, the densestpart of the maps is the upper left-hand side. On the other hand,maps related to articles look more uniform.

3.2 Temporal evolution

3.2.1 Evolution according to the dominant-technologyclassification

The four diagrams in Fig. 4 depict the temporal collocation ofdocuments and their citations, according to the dominant-technology classification. The reference year for patents isthat of the oldest priority date, which is generally close tothe date of the invention [21]. Time classes include 3 years;the only exception is represented by the broader first class (i.e.from 1978 to 1992), because of the relatively low number ofdocuments issued in this period.

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Fig. 1 Charts concerning the distributions of the number of documents(P) and that of the corresponding citations (C), on the basis of thedominant-technology classification. Charts are constructed both for

articles (charts (1) and (2)) and patents (charts (3) and (4)). For eachchart, it is reported the number of documents/citations in each class


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Typology of output:A - Description of the measuring systemB - New hardware component(s)C - New application/working procedureD - Development of system set-up/calibrationE - Optimization of measurement operationsF - Performance analysisG - Literature review

Fig. 2 Charts concerning the distributions of the number of documents(P) and that of the corresponding citations (C), on the basis of thetypology-of-output classification. Charts are constructed both for articles

(charts (1) and (2)) and patents (charts (3) and (4)). For each chart, it isreported the number of documents/citations in each class

59 A 0 34 8 0 17 0 0 0

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Fig. 3 Maps concerning the partition of documents (P) and citationsobtained (C) on the basis of dominant-technology (horizontal axis) andtypology-of-output (vertical axis) classes—both for articles (maps (1)

and (3)) and patents (maps (2) and (4)). To ease readability of each map,the grey level of cells is proportional to their numeric value, whichrepresents the number of documents/citations


Chart (1), relating to the number of articles, shows thatthere is almost no article before 1996 (apart fromArt1 in 1978,see Table 6 in Appendix). Then, there is a gradual rise until2008; this year signals a sort of explosion in terms of produc-tivity. Consistently with Fig. 1(1), it can be noticed that thearticle distribution over the dominant-technology classes isrelatively even. Of course, the 2008 explosion in the numberof articles is partly affected by the general growth of the wholescientific literature in recent years [22]. Nevertheless, thisgrowth is so strong that it seems fairly symptomatic of a realincrease of the scientific community’s interest towards LSDMresearch.

Chart (2) in Fig. 4 shows the number of citations obtainedup to the moment of data collection (C), by articles issued indifferent years. We note that the pattern reflects that of thecurves in chart (1), except for two features:

& The huge number of citations received by some articles inthe class h–N/A and issued in 2002–2004 (see the firstlocal peak in chart (2)). Curiously, most of the citations(i.e. 229) come from three highly cited literature reviews(i.e. Art8, Art11 and Art18, in Table 6), which are inde-pendent of a specific technology;

& The fact that the most recent articles (issued in 2011–2013) obtained a few citations, due to the still not com-plete maturation period of the citation impact [23].

Charts (3) and (4) are similar to the previous ones butreferring to patents. Chart (3) shows that a significant amountof patents were issued in the last 15 years of twentieth century,and they are mainly related to the class a–Laser interferometry/ADM. In the first 4–5 years of the twenty-first century, there isa slight decrease in patent production, followed by a powerful

growth. This sort of “rebound” effect seems to be in synergywith the impressive growth of scientific articles in the lastdecade. Also, the numerous patents issued in the end of twen-tieth century, and the subsequent market entry of new patentedtechnologies may have somehow stimulated the recent growthof scientific articles.

Chart (4), relating to the citations obtained by patents, isquite consistent with chart (3), just before 2005. Instead, therecent growth phase (from 2005 onwards) is almost absent.This behaviour is not surprising: Regarding patents, the mat-uration time of citation impact is generally much longer thanfor scientific articles [24].

3.2.2 Evolution according to the typology-of-outputclassification

The four diagrams in Fig. 5 are similar to those in Fig. 4, butthey are about the typology-of-output classification. Consistent-ly with the results presented in “Section 3.1.2”, we note that:

& Articles are quite uniformly distributed among the classes,over the years;

& Patents are almost exclusively related to the first threeclasses (A–Description of the measuring system, B–Newhardware component(s) and C–New application/workingprocedure). We note that, in the last 10 years, there hasbeen a growth of patents in class B and C, to the detrimentof those in class A.

A possible interpretation is that innovative LSDM systemswere developed about 15–20 years ago, but, due to theengineering-design-process time [25], they began to enterthe market and to be studied at academic level in the last

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Dominant technology:a - Laser-interferometry/ADMb - Photogrammetryc - Ultrasoundd - CMMe - Theodolite/R-LATf - Structured-light scanningg - Hybridh - N/A

Fig. 4 Temporal distribution of the number of documents (P) and the corresponding citations (C) on the basis of the dominant-technology classification.Charts are constructed both for articles (charts (1) and (2)) and patents (charts (3) and (4))


10–12 years only. In this recent period, there has been anexplosion of new scientific articles and patents aimed atimproving and refining these systems.

3.2.3 Trying to predict the near future of LSDM research

After studying the past evolution of the LSDM research, aquestion may arise: Howwill it evolve? Answering is not easybecause the documents that we examined inevitably reflect thepast. This applies to articles and especially patents, since theirpending-period (i.e. time lapse between filing date and issuedate) is very rarely shorter than 3 years. Also, extrapolatingfuture trends can be hasty because LSDM is a relatively youngand unpredictable discipline.

Nevertheless, we will try to outline possible future scenar-ios, taking into account the results of this study but also thecurrent level of diffusion of LSDM equipments within indus-trial environments.

The analysis of the documents showed that the majortechnological innovations stem from a first “wave” ofpatents, issued in the last decade of twentieth century.Around 10 years later, many of these patented technol-ogies were turned into real measuring systems, whichstarted to be used in industrial contexts and analyzed inscientific articles.

This confirms that it is unlikely that disruptive inno-vations are introduced to the outside world in the form ofscientific articles. Given the obvious strategic and com-mercial implications, it is customary to protect the most

promising innovations with patents or even to keep themsecret until they are ready to be transformed into well-established products [26].

The second “wave” of patents, i.e. those deposited roughlyin the last 10–12 years, and the simultaneous explosion ofscientific articles suggest that the current trend is to graduallyimprove and refine the available technologies. More precisely,some of the possible research directions are:

1. Development of new hardware components, which en-hance the functionality of existing measuring systems(e.g. innovative photogrammetric cameras, 6-DOFprobes, etc.).

2. Optimization of measurement procedures, such as en-hancing and speeding up the setup/calibration stage ofexisting measuring systems.

3. Development of new standards aimed at assessing thefunctionality and performance of existing measuring sys-tems and allowing their verification and comparison.Nowadays, standards on LSDM equipment are veryfew; for instance, the relatively recent ASME B89.4.19for laser trackers [27], the German guideline VDI/VDE2634 for photogrammetry [28] and the relatively well-established ISO 10360 series standards for CMMs [29].For most of the other systems, standards are absent (e.g.there still is no standard for the emerging R-LATsystems).

4. Development of measurement techniques based on thecombined used of LSDM systems of different nature. Thisrequirement originates from a practical reason: In indus-trial contexts, complex measurements often require the

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'93-

95

'96-

'98

'99-

'01

'02-

'04

'05-

'07

'08-

'10

'11-

'13

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

'78-

'92

'93-

95

'96-

'98

'99-

'01

'02-

'04

'05-

'07

'08-

'10

'11-

'13

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

'78-

'92

'93-

95

'96-

'98

'99-

'01

'02-

'04

'05-

'07

'08-

'10

'11-

'13

P CA

RT

ICLE

SP

AT

EN

TS

PTOT = 180 CTOT = 907


1 2

3 4

Typology of output:A - Description of the measuring systemB - New hardware component(s)C - New application/working procedureD - Development of system set-up/calibrationE - Optimization of measurement operationsF - Performance analysisG - Literature review

Fig. 5 Temporal distribution of the number of documents (P) and the corresponding citations (C) on the basis of the typology-of-output classification.Charts are constructed both for articles (charts (1) and (2)) and patents (charts (3) and (4))


combined use of multiple measuring systems. As a result,common (hardware and software) platforms that enablesharing and integration of information are essential. In the

recent scientific literature, there are several researchesaimed at achieving them (e.g. development of systemsbased on hybrid technologies), although our impression isthat this is just the beginning.

3.3 Study of the major scientific journals and patent assignees

Table 4 contains the list of the main sources (journals andconference proceedings) of the articles examined. For eachsource, it is reported the abbreviation, the total number ofarticles on LSDM (P), the total number of citations they haveobtained up to the moment of data collection (C) and theaverage number of citations per paper (CPP). The map inFig. 6a displays the bibliometric positioning of the sources,according to their P and C values. Of course, the mostinfluential sources in this field are those that tend to bepositioned in the upper-right corner. The dominant source isSrc1 (CIRP Annals–Manufacturing Technology), which con-tains articles presented in a traditional world-class conference

Table 4 List of the sources (journals and conference proceedings) thatcontain at least four LSDM articles

Abbr. Source title P C CPP

(a)Articles

Src1 CIRPAnnals-ManufacturingTechnology

14 377 26.9

Src2 Proceedings of the Institutionof Mechanical Engineers,Part B: Journal of EngineeringManufacture

5 56 11.2

Src3 International Journal of ComputerIntegrated Manufacturing

4 35 8.8

Src4 Optics and Lasers in Engineering 4 29 7.3

Src5 Guangxue Xuebao/Acta OpticaSinica

10 71 7.1

Src6 Guangdianzi Jiguang/Journal ofOptoelectronics Laser

6 19 3.2

Src7 Precision Engineering 7 22 3.1

Src8 Measurement Science andTechnology

6 14 2.3

Src9 International Journal of AdvancedManufacturing Technology

8 10 1.3

Src10 Hongwai yu Jiguang Gongcheng/Infrared and Laser Engineering

5 6 1.2

Src11 Guangxue Jingmi Gongcheng/Optics and PrecisionEngineering

4 2 0.5

Src12 Proceedings of SPIE-TheInternational Society for OpticalEngineering

15 5 0.3

Src13 Applied Mechanics and Materials 4 0 0.0

For each source, its abbreviation (“Abbr.”), total number of documents(P), total number of citations accumulated up to the moment of datacollection (C) and average citations per document (CPP) are reported.Sources are sorted according to their CPP values

Src13Src11 Src10

Src9Src8Src7

Src6

Src5

Src4Src3

Src2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Src12

Src6

3 8

Ass7

Ass6Ass5

Ass4Ass3

Ass2

Ass1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1 2 3 4 5 6

C

P

C

P

(a) Scatter map concerning publication sources (b) Scatter map concerning patent assegnees

[ Src1 ]

Fig. 6 Scatter maps representing the bibliometric positioning of thesources/assignees reported in Tables 4 and 5, according to their P andC values. The corresponding CPP values are reported in brackets.

Abbreviations of sources and assignees are shown in Tables 4 and 5,respectively. Given the high number of citations (377), Src1 falls abovethe quadrant of map (a)

Table 5 List of the assignees of at least two LSDM patents

Abbr. Assignee P C CPP

(b) PATENTS Ass1 Motion Games 3 106 35.3

Ass2 MIT 2 36 18.0

Ass3 Lawrence LivermoreNational Security

2 26 13.0

Ass4 Faro 3 34 11.3

Ass5 Boeing 4 29 7.3

Ass6 Nikon 5 21 4.2

Ass7 Zhejiang University 4 0 0.0

For each assignee, its abbreviation (“Abbr.”), total number of documents(P), total number of citations accumulated up to the moment of datacollection (C) and average citations per document (CPP) are reported.Assignees are sorted according to their CPP values


in the field of manufacturing [30]. The vast number of cita-tions is partly due to the fact that 7 out of the 14 articlespublished by this source are literature reviews with a relativelylarge diffusion. Src12 is the source with the largest number ofarticles (i.e. 15), but their citation impact is dramatically low(just five total Citations).

The same analysis can be extended to patents, just replac-ing article sources with patent assignees. Table 5 shows the listof the assignees of at least two patents. For each assignee, it isalso reported the total number of patents (P ), the total numberof citations they have obtained (C), and the average number ofcitations per patent (CPP). The map in Fig. 6b displays thebibliometric positioning of the patent assignees, according totheir P and C values. Curiously, the most cited patents arethose by Ass1 (i.e. Pat13, Pat14 and Pat15, in Table 7),relating to videogame and home-entertainment applicationsbased on photogrammetry or structured-light scanning. Wealso notice that the list includes important companies in thefield of metrology (e.g. Faro and Nikon) and aerospace(Boeing). Finally, it can be seen that some important univer-sities (e.g. MIT and Zhejang University) are assignees of aportion of the patents.

4 Conclusions

The recent evolution of LSDM systems is evidenced by thegradual growth of scientific articles and patents, particularly inthe last 10–15 years.

Our study isolated a platform of documents that can be ofinterest to the reader who approaches LSDM. The combinedanalysis of scientific articles and patents showed a sort ofdualism, summarized in the following points:

& As expected, almost all patents deal with new measure-ment systems, hardware components and working

procedures. As for the articles, apart from literature re-views, the main contributions concern working proce-dures, performance analysis, development of the systemsetup/calibration stage and optimization of measurementoperations, for existing measuring systems.

& Regarding the temporal collocation, a substantial portionof patents were issued in the last 15 years of twentiethcentury. On the other hand, most of the articles wereissued after 2004. It appears clear that articles followedthe evolution of patents, probably after the new (patented)technologies became available on the market.

& Referring to the dominant-technology classification, it isobserved that scientific articles are distributed quite uni-formly among the major available technologies. On thecontrary, patents are polarized primarily on the laser-interferometry technology, followed by other more afford-able ones, but with lower accuracy, i.e. photogrammetryand structured-light scanning. Probably, the future evolu-tion of these emerging technologies will make them morecompetitive… time will tell! Another impression we ex-perienced is that academic research is probably morefocused on developing affordable measurement systems,while the most expensive and accurate ones are mainlydesigned and refined by companies who have the re-sources for developing, engineering and marketing them.

A limitation of this work is the data collection procedure,which, although being meticulous and transparent, is not freefrom the risk of omitting a portion of LSDM documents (i.e.relevant documents that are not indexed by the databases inuse or do not meet the search query). This risk is even largerfor patents, since their language is sometimes captious and cancomplicate the searching by keywords [31]. Future researchcould be aimed at extending the portfolio of documents po-tentially related to LSDM, by analyzing those that cite or arecited by other ones.

Appendix

Table 6 List of the papers selected for the analysis

Ref. no. Author(s) Year Title Source title Techn. Typ. Cites

Art1 Puttock 1978 Large-scale metrology CIRPAnnals-ManufacturingTechnology

h G 17

Art2 Ding and Coleman 1996 Adjustment of precisionmetrology networks in threedimension

Survey Review e E 0

Art3 Li et al. 2000 Phase-measuring profilometry inlarge scale measurement

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica f C 34


Table 6 (continued)


Art4 Clarke et al. 2001 Performance verification for largevolume metrology systems

Laser Metrology and MachinePerformance V

h F 1

Art5 Li et al. 2001 Large-scale three-dimensionalobject measurement: Apractical coordinate mappingand image data-patchingmethod

Applied Optics b C 43

Art6 Peters et al. 2001 Contribution of CIRP to thedevelopment of metrology andsurface quality evaluationduring the last fifty years

CIRPAnnals-ManufacturingTechnology

h G 17

Art7 Swyt 2001 Length and dimensionalmeasurements at NIST

Journal of Research of the NationalInstitute of Standards andTechnology

h G 5

Art8 Estler et al. 2002 Large-scale metrology—anupdate


h G 61

Art9 Saadat and Cretin 2002 Dimensional variations duringAirbus wing assembly

Assembly Automation a C 8

Art10 Saadat and Cretin 2002 Measurement systems for largeaerospace components

Sensor Review h G 9

Art11 Schwenke et al. 2002 Optical methods for dimensionalmetrology in productionengineering


h G 63

Art12 Brown et al. 2003 Recent work at NML to establishtraceability for surveyelectronic distancemeasurement (EDM)

Proceedings of SPIE-The InternationalSociety for Optical Engineering

a F 0

Art13 Jones et al. 2003 Laser Induced Fluorescence forPhotogrammetricMeasurement of Transparentor Reflective AerospaceStructures

Proceedings of the InternationalInstrumentation Symposium

b C 1

Art14 Kruth et al. 2003 Behaviour and accuracyspecification - Study on anLED-CMOS camera 3Dmeasuring system

Laser Metrology and MachinePerformance VI

b F 0

Art15 Maropoulos 2003 Digital enterprise technology -Defining perspectives andresearch priorities

International Journal of ComputerIntegrated Manufacturing

a C 31

Art16 Maropoulos et al. 2003 A novel digital enterprisetechnology framework for thedistributed development andvalidation of complex products


a C 9

Art17 Zhang et al. 2003 A study on the optimal design oflaser-based multi-laterationsystems


a E 5

Art18 Weckenmann et al. 2004 Probing systems in dimensionalmetrology


h G 105

Art19 Yang and Cheng 2004 Application of photogrammetrictechnique to astronomicaltelescope measurement andcontrol


b C 0

Art20 Aguilar et al. 2005 Development of a stereo visionsystem for non-contact railwayconcrete sleepers measurementbased in holographic opticalelements

Measurement: Journal of theInternational MeasurementConfederation

f C 8

Art21 Balsamo et al. 2005 A portable stereovision systemfor cultural heritagemonitoring


b A 3


Table 6 (continued)


Art22 Canning et al. 2005 Uncertainty of spatial coordinatemeasurements usingtrilateration

Transactions of the North AmericanManufacturing Research Institute ofSME

h F 1

Art23 Jeffery 2005 Right first time Engineering e G 0

Art24 Parker 2005 Multidirectional retroreflectorassembly with a commonvirtual reflection point usingfour-mirror retroreflectors

Precision Engineering a B 3

Art25 Schwenke and Wendt 2005 Technologies for co-ordinatemetrology

VDI Berichte h G 0

Art26 Shih and Lo 2005 Photogrammetry technique for 3-D model extraction -Processing of a wind tunneltest video data

Conference Proceedings of the Societyfor Experimental Mechanics Series

b C 0

Art27 Zhang et al. 2005 Modelling and optimization ofnovel laser multilaterationschemes for high-precisionapplications

Measurement Science and Technology a E 7

Art28 Cheok and Lytle 2006 Performance evaluation of 3Dimaging systems

Standardization News b G 0

Art29 Maropoulos et al. 2006 Integration of measurementplanning with aggregateproduct modelling forspacecraft design andassembly

Proceedings of the Institution ofMechanical Engineers, Part B:Journal of Engineering Manufacture

h C 8

Art30 Ouyang et al. 2006 Research of measuring accuracyof laser tracker system


a F 4

Art31 Tournier et al. 2006 Estimation and control of aquadrotor vehicle usingmonocular vision and moirépatterns

AIAA Guidance, Navigation, andControl Conference 2006

g C 0

Art32 Wang et al. 2006 High precision large scalemetrology using a chirpedlaser pulse


a C 0

Art33 Maropoulos et al. 2007 Key digital enterprise technologymethods for large volumemetrology and assemblyintegration

International Journal of ProductionResearch

a C 12

Art34 Parian et al. 2007 Network and system design for aphotogrammetricmeasurement of large spacestructures using projected lightspots targeting approach

European Space Agency b D 0

Art35 Savio et al. 2007 Metrology of freeform shapedparts


h G 49

Art36 Zhou et al. 2007 Calibrating double sensors laservision measurement system

Guangdianzi Jiguang/Journal ofOptoelectronics Laser

f D 8

Art37 Maisano et al. 2008 Indoor GPS: System functionalityand initial performanceevaluation

International Journal of ManufacturingResearch

e F 21

Art38 Maropoulos et al. 2008 Large volume metrology processmodels: A framework forintegrating measurement withassembly planning


h C 8

Art39 Muralikrishnan et al. 2008 Performance evaluation of lasertrackers

PerMIS 2008 a F 0

Art40 Wu et al. 2008 A novel calibration method forlarge-scale stereo vision sensorbased on one-dimensionaltarget


b D 0


Table 6 (continued)


Art41 Ye et al. 2008 Status and development of large-scale coordinate measurementresearch

Jiliang Xuebao/Acta MetrologicaSinica

h G 7

Art42 Zhang et al. 2008 Development of measurementsystem for accuracy control insubsection manufacture

Key Engineering Materials a C 0

Art43 Zhang et al. 2008 Large-scale space anglemeasurement


f C 2

Art44 Zhang et al. 2008 A method of precision evaluationfor field large-scalemeasurement

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica h E 6

Art45 Zhang et al. 2008 Quantity traceability in large-scale measurement in situ

Journal of Tianjin University Scienceand Technology

h E 2

Art46 Zhang et al. 2008 Evaluation of uncertainty inlarge-scale fusion metrology


h F 0

Art47 Coddington et al. 2009 Rapid and precise absolutedistance measurements at longrange

Nature Photonics a E 74

Art48 Cuypers et al. 2009 Optical measurement techniquesfor mobile and large-scaledimensional metrology

Optics and Lasers in Engineering b A 28

Art49 Franceschini et al. 2009 Mobile Spatial coordinateMeasuring System (MScMS) -Introduction to the system


c A 8

Art50 Franceschini et al. 2009 The problem of distributedwireless sensors positioning inthe mobile spatial coordinatemeasuring system (MSCMS)

ESDA 2008 c D 0

Art51 Franceschini et al. 2009 On-line diagnostics in the MobileSpatial coordinate MeasuringSystem (MScMS)

Precision Engineering c E 7

Art52 Franceschini et al. 2009 Mobile spatial coordinatemeasuring system (MScMS)and CMMs: A structuredcomparison

International Journal of AdvancedManufacturing Technology

h F 4

Art53 Galetto et al. 2009 An innovative indoor coordinatemeasuring system for large-scale metrology based on adistributed IR sensor network

MSEC2009 b A 2

Art54 Liu et al. 2009 Improved scheme andmathematical model formeasuring the time-of-flight inpulse laser ranging


a C 1

Art55 Lv et al. 2009 Data fusion algorithm for highaccuracy coordinatetransformation


a E 1

Art56 Maisano et al. 2009 A comparison of two distributedlarge-volume measurementsystems: The mobile spatialco-ordinate measuring systemand the indoor globalpositioning system


h F 14

Art57 Mao et al. 2009 Analysis on optical coordinatemeasurement based on phasetarget

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica b D 9

Art58 Martin and Chetwynd 2009 Angle calibration of robotic totalstations and laser trackers

IMEKO 2009 h D 0

Art59 Neuschaefer-Rube et al. 2009 Test procedures and artefacts foroptical coordinate metrology


a D 0

Art60 Peggs et al. 2009 Recent developments in large-scale dimensional metrology


h G 24


Table 6 (continued)


Art61 Pollinger et al. 2009 Diode-laser-based high-precisionabsolute distanceinterferometer of 20m range

Applied Optics a B 11

Art62 Qu et al. 2009 Application study on laserranging in large-scalemeasurement

Chinese Journal of ScientificInstrument

a C 1

Art63 Ren et al. 2009 Study on portable optical 3Dcoordinate measuring system


b A 0

Art64 Swann et al. 2009 Absolute ranging using frequencycombs

CLEO/QELS 2009 a B 0

Art65 Tang et al. 2009 Three-dimensional shapemeasurement of asphericmirror based on fringereflection


Art66 Wang et al. 2009 Three-dimensional measurementof object in water by trackingphase value


Art67 Weckenmann et al. 2009 Multisensor data fusion indimensional metrology


h G 37

Art68 Zhou and Cheng 2009 Study on wide-range device forhigh precision measurement

Bandaoti Guangdian/SemiconductorOptoelectronics

a B 0

Art69 Zhu et al. 2009 Principle and implementationmethod of three-dimensionalprecision positioning in largefield working space

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica b C 10

Art70 Cai et al. 2010 An algorithm for computingextrinsic camera parametersfor far-range photogrammetrybased on essential matrix


b D 0

Art71 Domboski et al. 2010 Design of a multi-function vectorbar

DETC2009 e B 0

Art72 Ferri et al. 2010 Sources of variability in the set-up of an indoor GPS


e D 3

Art73 Forbes A. 2010 CMM uncertainty andconformance assessment

ENBIS-IMEKO TC21 2010 d F 0

Art74 Franceschini et al. 2010 An unmanned aerial vehicle-based system for large scalemetrology applications


b C 1

Art75 Franceschini et al. 2010 Ultrasound transducers for large-scale metrology: Aperformance analysis for theiruse by the MScMS

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentationand Measurement

c F 4

Art76 Galetto and Pralio 2010 Optimal sensor positioning forlarge scale metrologyapplications

Precision Engineering c D 7

Art77 Galetto et al. 2010 Indoor environmental mappingby means of autonomousguided agents

ESDA2010 b C 1

Art78 Galetto et al. 2010 Awireless sensor network-basedapproach to large-scaledimensional metrology


b C 1

Art79 Galetto et al. 2010 The Mobile Spatial coordinateMeasuring System II(MScMS-II): Systemdescription and preliminaryassessment of themeasurement uncertainty

ENBIS-IMEKO TC21 2012 b F 0

Art80 Geng et al. 2010 Analysis of angle measurementuncertainty for wMPS


e F 0


Table 6 (continued)


Art81 Jamshidi et al. 2010 Manufacturing and assemblyautomation by integratedmetrology systems for aircraftwing fabrication


h C 6

Art82 Koelman 2010 Application of aphotogrammetry-based systemto measure and re-engineership hulls and ship parts: Anindustrial practices-basedreport

CAD Computer Aided Design b C 2

Art83 Liu et al. 2010 Mobile large scale 3D coordinatemeasuring system based onnetwork of rotating laserautomatic theodolites


e A 0

Art84 Liu et al. 2010 Position and orientationmeasurement for large-sizeworkpiece based on binocularvision


e C 0

Art85 Liu et al. 2010 A large scale 3D positioningmethod based on a network ofrotating laser automatictheodolites

ICIA 2010 e E 2

Art86 Martin D. 2010 Instrument calibration at theeuropean synchrotronradiation facility

ENBIS-IMEKO TC21 2011 g C 0

Art87 Mastrogiacomo and Maisano 2010 Network localization proceduresfor experimental evaluation ofmobile spatial coordinatemeasuring system (MScMS)


c D 2

Art88 Muelaner et al. 2010 Estimation of uncertainty inthree-dimensional coordinatemeasurement by comparisonwith calibrated points

Measurement Science and Technology e F 3

Art89 Muelaner et al. 2010 Large-volume metrologyinstrument selection andmeasurability analysis


h G 4

Art90 Predmore 2010 Bundle adjustment of multi-position measurements usingthe Mahalanobis distance

Precision Engineering h F 4

Art91 Schmitt et al. 2010 Performance evaluation of iGPSfor industrial applications

IPIN 2010 e F 0

Art92 Schneider 2010 Requirements for positioning andnavigation in undergroundconstructions

IPIN 2010 h G 0

Art93 Schwendemann et al. 2010 Indoor navigation of machinesand measuring devices withiGPS

IPIN 2010 e C 0

Art94 Wang et al. 2010 3-D shape measurement forisolated objects based on color-encoded fringe projection


f E 5

Art95 Wanli and Zhankui 2010 New method for large-scaledimensional metrology usinglaser tracker system

Advanced Materials Research a C 0

Art96 Wendt et al. 2010 Mobile multi-laterationmeasuring system for highaccurate and traceable 3Dmeasurements of large objects

ISMQC 2010 a C 0

Art97 Xie et al. 2010 Underwater line structured-lightself-scan three-dimensionmeasuring technology

Chinese Journal of Lasers f C 6


Table 6 (continued)


Art98 Yang et al. 2010 Novel method for spatial anglemeasurement based on rotatingplanar laser beams

Chinese Journal of MechanicalEngineering

e A 5

Art99 Yang et al. 2010 Large-scale coordinatesmeasurement method based onintersection of optical planes

Hongwai yu Jiguang Gongcheng/Infrared and Laser Engineering

e A 4

Art100 Yang et al. 2010 Error analysis of workspacemeasurement positioningsystem based on opticalscanning


e E 1

Art101 Yang et al. 2010 Evaluating the accuracy of largescale vision measurement byfitting point

Journal of Huazhong University ofScience and Technology

b F 0

Art102 Zhang et al. 2010 In-situ optical measurement ofseparation angles betweenbifacial lines in large scalespace


e A 0

Art103 Zhang et al. 2010 The design of double-theodolite3D coordinate measurementsystem

Chinese Journal of Sensors andActuators

e D 5

Art104 Duanmu et al. 2011 3D coordinate measurementsystem based on optoelectronicscanning


e A 1

Art105 Galetto et al. 2011 MScMS-II: An innovative IR-based indoor coordinatemeasuring system for large-scale metrology applications


b A 1

Art106 Gao et al. 2011 Precision measurementtechnology of 3D surfaces


a F 0

Art107 Geng et al. 2011 Key techniques on rotating laserplane coordinate measuringsystem


e A 1

Art108 Geng et al. 2011 Research on angle measurementuncertainty of wMPS

Guangdian Gongcheng/Opto-Electronic Engineering

e F 1

Art109 Gonzalez-Jorge et al. 2011 Standard artifact for thegeometric verification ofterrestrial laser scanningsystems

Optics and Laser Technology f F 6

Art110 Hughes et al. 2011 Laser tracker error determinationusing a network measurement

Measurement Science and Technology a D 3

Art111 Lao et al. 2011 Optimization of calibrationmethod for scanning planarlaser coordinate measurementsystem

Guangxue Jingmi Gongcheng/Opticsand Precision Engineering

f D 1

Art112 Liu et al. 2011 3D auto-inspection for large thin-wall object

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica b C 1

Art113 Maropoulos et al. 2011 Early design verification ofcomplex assembly variabilityusing a Hybrid-Model Basedand Physical Testing-Methodology


h E 1

Art114 Mbarek et al. 2011 Positioning System for theAircraft Structural Assembly

SAE International Journal ofAerospace

a C 0

Art115 Often et al. 2011 Multiple-camera instrumentationof a single point incrementalforming process pilot for shapeand 3D displacementmeasurements: Methodologyand results

Proceedings of the Society forExperimental Mechanics

b C 3


Table 6 (continued)


Art116 Orteu et al. 2011 Multiple-Camera Instrumentationof a Single Point IncrementalForming Process Pilot forShape and 3D DisplacementMeasurements: Methodologyand Results

Experimental Mechanics b C 0

Art117 Peng et al. 2011 Phase-aided three-dimensionalimaging and metrology

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica b G 4

Art118 Ruther et al. 2011 Kinect: On using a gamingRGBD camera in micro-metrology applications

IEEE CVPRW 2011 f D 0

Art119 Shi et al. 2011 Half century of coordinatemetrology technology -Evolution and trends

Journal of Beijing University ofTechnology

h G 4

Art120 Sun et al. 2011 A calibration method for stereovision sensor with large FOVbased on 1D targets

Optics and Lasers in Engineering b C 1

Art121 Von Enzberg et al. 2011 A physical simulation approachfor active photogrammetric 3Dmeasurement systems

IEEE Instrumentation andMeasurement TechnologyConference

b F 0

Art122 Wang et al. 2011 High accuracy mobile robotpositioning using externallarge volume metrologyinstruments


e C 0

Art123 Wang et al. 2011 Experimental comparison ofdynamic tracking performanceof iGPS and laser tracker


e F 2

Art124 Wang et al. 2011 Impact of attitude deviations onlaser point cloud of airborneLiDAR


f F 1

Art125 Zhang et al. 2011 Laser automatic theodolitemeasurement system based onvision guidance


e A 4

Art126 Zhong et al. 2011 Calibration algorithm of structureparameters in combined large-scale 3D metrology system


g D 0

Art127 Ziegler and Franke 2011 A cost-effective stereo camerasystem for online pose controlof patient handling robots

ICARA 2011 b C 0

Art128 Bian et al. 2012 3D coordinate measurementbased on inversephotogrammetry and fringeanalysis

Optik g C 0

Art129 Boerez et al. 2012 Analysis and filtering of the effectof tides on the hydrostaticlevelling systems at CERN

Survey Review h F 0

Art130 Brinksmeier et al. 2012 Diamond Micro Chiseling oflarge-scale retroreflectivearrays

Precision Engineering a B 0

Art131 Cao et al. 2012 Application of Gerchbergiterative algorithm in three-dimensional shapemeasurement

Guangxue Jishu/Optical Technique f E 0

Art132 Cuesta et al. 2012 Feasibility evaluation ofPhotogrammetry versusCoordinate Measuring Armsfor the assembly of weldedstructures

Advanced Materials Research b C 0

Art133 Du et al. 2012 Precision analysis of iGPSmeasurement field and itsapplication

Hangkong Xuebao/Acta Aeronautica etAstronautica Sinica

e F 0


Table 6 (continued)


Art134 Duanmu et al. 2012 Study on tracking algorithm forwMPS based on least square-Kalman filter

Chinese Journal of Sensors andActuators

e E 0

Art135 Flynn 2012 Synthesizing MetrologyTechnologies to ReduceEngineering Time for LargeCNC Machine Compensation

SAE International Journal of Materialsand Manufacturing

d D 0

Art136 Forbes 2012 Weighting observations frommulti-sensor coordinatemeasuring systems

Measurement Science and Technology a E 0

Art137 Gomez-Acedo et al. 2012 A method for thermalcharacterization and modelingof large gantry-type machinetools


d E 1

Art138 Gonzalez-Jorge et al. 2012 Photogrammetry and laserscanner technology applied tolength measurements in cartesting laboratories


h F 1

Art139 He et al. 2012 High-precision automaticmeasurement of two-dimensional geometricfeatures based on machinevision

Journal of Southeast University b C 0

Art140 Hu et al. 2012 Measurement of large-scale spaceangle formed by non-uniplanarlines


f C 0

Art141 Hu et al. 2012 A novel color fringe projectionmethod for 3Dmeasurement ofcolorful objects


Art142 Kampke et al. 2012 Navigation in landmark networks Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics h E 0

Art143 Lee et al. 2012 Precision measurement ofcarriage slide motion error of adrum roll lathe

Precision Engineering h C 1

Art144 Li et al. 2012 Laser coarse-fine couplingscanning method by steeringdouble prisms

Applied Optics e A 2

Art145 Lin et al. 2012 Field evaluation of laser trackerangle measurement error


a F 0

Art146 Liu et al. 2012 Automatic registration of rangeimages combined with thesystem calibration and globalICP

Proceedings of SPIE - The InternationalSociety for Optical Engineering

b C 0

Art147 Liu et al. 2012 Photogrammetric techniques foraerospace applications

Progress in Aerospace Sciences b G 0

Art148 Muelaner et al. 2012 Verification of the indoor GPSsystem, by comparison withcalibrated coordinates and byangular reference

Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing e F 0

Art149 Nasr et al. 2012 ASME B89.4.19 standard forlaser tracker verification -Experiences and optimisations

International Journal of Metrology andQuality Engineering

a F 0

Art150 Ni and Zheng 2012 Optimal configurationmethod forlarge-scale measurementsystems based on form erroruncertainty

Jiliang Xuebao/Acta MetrologicaSinica

h E 1

Art151 Pollinger et al. 2012 The upgraded PTB 600 mbaseline: A high-accuracyreference for the calibrationand the development of longdistance measurement devices

Measurement Science and Technology a D 0


Table 6 (continued)


Art152 Pollinger et al. 2012 Effective humidity in lengthmeasurements: Comparison ofthree approaches

Measurement Science and Technology a F 1

Art153 Samper et al. 2012 A stereo-vision system toautomate the manufacture of asemitrailer chassis


b C 0

Art154 Sanchez-Lasheras et al. 2012 Study of the technical feasibilityof photogrammetry andcoordinated measuring armsfor the inspection of weldedstructures

AIP 2012 b C 0

Art155 Santolaria et al. 2012 Laser tracker-based kinematicparameter calibration ofindustrial robots by improvedCPA method and activeretroreflector


a C 0

Art156 Shi et al. 2012 High-speed measurementalgorithm for the position ofholes in a large plane

Optics and Lasers in Engineering b C 0

Art157 Stiros 2012 Levelling in antiquity:Instrumentation, techniquesand accuracies

Survey Review h F 0

Art158 Wendt et al. 2012 Measuring large 3D structuresusing four portable trackinglaser interferometers


a C 0

Art159 Wu et al. 2012 On-line three-dimensionalinspection based on orthogonaltwo-frequency gratingprojection

Chinese Journal of Lasers f E 0

Art160 Xiong et al. 2012 Workspace measuring andpositioning system based onrotating laser planes

Mechanika e A 0

Art161 Xiong et al. 2012 Verification of horizontal angularsurvey performance forworkspace measuring andpositioning system


e F 0

Art162 Yang et al. 2012 Distributed optical sensornetwork with self-monitoringmechanism for accurate indoorlocation and coordinatemeasurement

Applied Mechanics and Materials e A 0

Art163 Yang et al. 2012 Orientation method forworkspace measurementpositioning system based onscale bar


b E 0

Art164 Yang et al. 2012 Correction method for orientationparameters of workspacemeasurement positioningsystem


e E 0

Art165 Yu and Pan 2012 Camera internal-parameterscalibration based on theconstruction of initialmeasurement network

Guangxue Xuebao/Acta Optica Sinica b D 0

Art166 Zatarain et al. 2012 Raw part characterisation andautomated alignment bymeansof a photogrammetricapproach


b C 0

Art167 Zhang and Qu 2012 Fusion estimation of point setsfrom multiple stations ofspherical coordinateinstruments utilizing

Measurement Science Review a C 0


Table 6 (continued)


uncertainty estimation basedon Monte Carlo

Art168 Zhang et al. 2012 Design and implementation ofsoftware system for large-scalecoordinate measurement basedon the laser tracker

Applied Mechanics and Materials a E 0

Art169 Zhou et al. 2012 Dynamic length measuringsystem for large scaleworkpieces


g C 0

Art170 Zhou et al. 2012 Application of bundle adjustmentto accuracy evaluation of lasertracker


a D 1

Art171 Zhu and Zheng 2012 Multiple-objective optimizationalgorithm based on keyassembly characteristics toposture best fit for largecomponent assembly


h E 0

Art172 Galetto and Mastrogiacomo 2013 Corrective algorithms formeasurement improvement inMScMS-II (mobile spatialcoordinate measurementsystem)

Precision Engineering b E 0

Art173 Gholami et al. 2013 An artificial neural networkapproach to the problem ofwireless sensors networklocalization

Robotics and Computer-IntegratedManufacturing

c E 1

Art174 Jiawen et al. 2013 An analysis model for structuraloptimization of polygonranging-based spacecoordinate measurementnetwork

Applied Mechanics and Materials h E 0

Art175 Liu et al. 2013 3D measurement and qualityevaluation for complex aircraftassemblies


g C 0

Art176 Ma et al. 2013 Non-diffracting beam basedprobe technology formeasuring coordinates ofhidden parts

Optics and Lasers in Engineering a B 0

Art177 Norman et al. 2013 Validation of iGPS as an externalmeasurement system forcooperative robot positioning


e C 0

Art178 Senin et al. 2013 Point set augmentation throughfitting for enhanced ICPregistration of point clouds inmultisensor coordinatemetrology


g E 0

Art179 Wang et al. 2013 Flash sliver prevents laserpenetrating organic materials

Applied Mechanics and Materials a E 0

Art180 Wang et al. 2013 Evaluate error sources anduncertainty in large scalemeasurement systems


f F 1

Articles are sorted by issue year (“Year”) and author name (“Author(s)”). Sources are journals or conference proceedings indexed by the Scopusdatabase. For each article, also reported are the dominant-technology class (“Techn.”) and the typology-of-output class (“Typ.”), according to theclassifications in Tables 2 and 3


Table 7 List of the patents selected for the analysis

Ref.no.

Publ. no. Year Title Assignee(s) Techn. Typ. Cites

Pat1 JP60233581 1984 Frequency modulated laser radar Digital Optronics et al. a E 57

Pat2 DE3640287 1986 Method of producing a common system of coordinates in the case ofmulti-armed coordinate measuring instruments

Zeiss d C 10

Pat3 EP-290809 1987 Integrated assembly system Northrop Grumman h C 113

Pat4 US4714339 1987 Three- and five-axes laser tracking systems US Department ofCommerce

a A 50

Pat5 NO9103994 1991 Method and system for point by point measurement of spatialcoordinates

Metronor b A 47

Pat6 GB9400066 1994 Optical coordinate measuring system for large objects Creo Products a A 19

Pat7 WO9723787 1995 Optical coordinate measuring machine Kodak and ResearchCorpus Technologies

a A 21

Pat8 DE19621195 1996 Method and device for determining the direction in which an object islocated

Leica a E 4

Pat9 US20040105100 1996 Apparatus and methods for surface contour measurements MIT g A 17

Pat10 US20040260422 1996 Software for improving the accuracy of machines Boeing a B 17

Pat11 US20060012802 1996 Apparatus and methods for surface contour measurement MIT g A 19

Pat12 US5822877 1996 Multi-probe system for dimensional metrology Chase Manhattan Bankand Hexagon

d E 16

Pat13 US20060202953 1997 Novel man machine interfaces and applications Motion Games b A 19

Pat14 US20080122786 1997 Advanced video gaming methods for education and play usingcamera based inputs

Motion Games b A 23

Pat15 US20120040755 1997 Interactive video based games using objects sensed by TV cameras Motion Games b A 64

Pat16 US5644141 1997 Apparatus and method for high-speed characterization of surfaces Commerce BankPennsylvania et al.

f A 14

Pat17 US6017125 1997 Bar coded retroreflective target Lawrence Livermoreand US Dept. ofEnergy

f E 23

Pat18 US6618132 1997 Miniature laser tracker Lawrence Livermore f A 3

Pat19 RU2139497 1998 Device measuring distance to various points on surface of objects Benditskij et al. g A 0

Pat20 US20120327390 1999 Methods for using a locator camera in a laser tracker Faro a E 0

Pat21 WO200362744 1999 Laser-based coordinate measuring device and laser-based method formeasuring coordinates

Faro a E 32

Pat22 WO200237133 2000 Position measurement system and method using cone mathcalibration

Arc Second, Nikon e A 21

Pat23 CN1375682 2001 Trackless large-part measuring device and method Sichuan University a E 0

Pat24 US20020145563 2001 Body motion tracking system Tera Research g A 31

Pat25 TW200513632 2003 Compensation of laser tracker measuring Tsay Yuh-Feng a B 0

Pat26 US20050157410 2004 Multidirectional retroflector Associated Universities a E 6

Pat27 CA2569798 2005 Full-field three-dimensional measurement method University of Ottawaand University ofWaterloo

g C 14

Pat28 WO200725362 2005 Imaging system and method Neptec g A 2

Pat29 CN1971206 2006 Calibration method for binocular vision sensor based on one-dimension target

Beihang university b D 0

Pat30 US20090112348 2007 System, method, and computer program product for computing jacklocations to align parts for assembly

Boeing h C 4

Pat31 US20110270571 2007 System for assembling aircraft Boeing h C 8

Pat32 NL1037087 2008 Interferometer Calibration System and Method Agilent Technologies a D 0

Pat33 US20090125265 2008 Method for Calibrating a Laser-Based Spherical CoordinateMeasurement System by a Mechanical Harmonic Oscillator

Parker D.H. a D 2

Pat34 US7924441 2008 Fast and high-precision 3D tracking and position measurement withMEMS micromirrors

Mirrorcle Technologies f E 0

Pat35 WO2009115130 2008 Position estimation enhancement for a global navigation satellitesystem receiver

Telespazio h B 1

Pat36 US20100176270 2009 Volumetric error compensation system with laser tracker and activetarget

Automated Precision d D 2


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Table 7 (continued)

Ref.no.

Publ. no. Year Title Assignee(s) Techn. Typ. Cites

Pat37 CN101850850 2010 Layout method of central airframe digital assembly of big plane Zhejiang University a C 0

Pat38 CN101915563 2010 Measurement method of aircraft rudder deflection angle Xi AnAircraft Design&Research Institute ofAVIC

a C 0

Pat39 CN102001451 2010 Airplane component attitude adjusting and butting system based onfour numeric control positioners, attitude adjusting platform andmobile bracket and corresponding method

Boeing a C 0

Pat40 CN102059549 2010 Airplane engine attitude regulation installation system based on fournumerical control positioners and use method thereof

Zhejiang University a C 0

Pat41 US20120037705 2010 System and method for object metrology Honeywell g A 0

Pat42 US20120038994 2010 Universal sphere mount Hubbs W.O. a E 0

Pat43 US20120059624 2010 Method and apparatus for dynamic 6DOF measurement Madhavan Viswanathan a C 0

Pat44 US8375594 2010 Pneumatic counterbalance for optical head gantry Bruker Nano d E 0

Pat45 WO201185283 2010 Method and apparatus for synchronizing measurements taken bymultiple metrology devices

Faro g E 2

Pat46 CN102322815 2011 High-precision and high-volume measurement device and methodbased on three-dimensional laser scanning

Zhejiang MeasurementScience ResearchInstitute

f E 0

Pat47 CN102374847 2011 Work space six degree-of-freedom posture dynamic measurementequipment and method

Tianjin University e A 0

Pat48 CN202133430U 2011 Three-dimensional laser scan-based large volume measurementequipment with high precision

Zhejiang MeasurementScience ResearchInstitute

f E 0

Pat49 US20120186059 2011 Target for large-scale metrology system Nikon a E 0

Pat50 US20120286147 2011 Wide-angle laser signal sensor Southwest ResearchInstitute

a E 0

Pat51 US20130003042 2011 Stroboscopic light source for a transmitter of a large scale metrologysystem

Nikon e E 0

Pat52 WO2012110635 2011 System for measuring the position and movement of an object Nikon g A 0

Pat53 US20120050726 2012 Large-scale metrology apparatus and method Nikon e A 0

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http://www.info.scopus.com/

http://www.questel.com/prodsandservices/orbit.htm

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/

http://www.asme.org/

http://www.asme.org/

http://www.cirp.net/