3-D Automated Positioning and Measurement Platforms

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SAFL’s “Magic Cart” is perhaps the lab’s best example of high speed coordinated measurement and control. This is a measurement platform capable of positioning an instrumentation package anywhere in a rectangular space that measures 1.8m high, 2.75m wide, and 55m long with accuracies of 10µm, 100 µm, and 1mm, respectively. Its maximum speed in either horizontal direction is 2 m/s. Maximum data rates are 100/sec (water surface), 120/sec (sonar),
750/sec (laser topography), and 2000/sec (misc. analog). A topo scan at 1mm x 1mm grid spacing over a 0.5m square domain (250,000 points) takes about 15 minutes.