Automated Inspection and
Reverse Engineering
Tarek M. Sobh, Chris Jaynes,
Mohamed Dekhil, and Tom Henderson
Abstract. CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Manufacturing) typically involves
the design and manufacture of a mechanical part. The problem of reverse
engineering is to take an existing mechanical part as the point of
departure and to produce a design, and perhaps a manufacturing process,
for the part. We explore a new approach
to reverse engineering and inspection applications. Discrete event dynamic
systems (DEDS) are investigated as a new framework for guiding and controlling
the active exploration and perception of mechanical parts. The dynamic recursive
context for finite state machines (DRFSM) is introduced as a new DEDS tool for
utilizing the recursive nature of the mechanical parts under consideration.
The framework utilizes DRFSM DEDS for constructing a
goal-directed autonomous observer for inspection and reverse engineering purposes.
The developed techniques are then used to aid CAD pre-constructed
models for inspection purposes and/or to develop models for subsequent
manufacturing, thus, closing the sensing modeling
manufacturing
inspection loop.
Keywords. Automation, Computer Vision, Control Systems,
Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, Inspection, Intelligent Systems,
Manufacturing, Reverse Engineering, Robotics.