초록 ▼

An apparatus for determining the position and/or alignment of objects such as motor vehicle wheels, and including targets for attachment to the objects, a pair of optical sensing means such as television cameras for viewing the targets, an electronic processing means connected to the optical sensing

An apparatus for determining the position and/or alignment of objects such as motor vehicle wheels, and including targets for attachment to the objects, a pair of optical sensing means such as television cameras for viewing the targets, an electronic processing means connected to the optical sensing means for processing data relating to images of the targets to determine position and/or alignment information, and a display means for displaying the position and/or alignment information. The optical sensing means view a target located on each object and form an image of each target. Electronic signals corresponding to each of the images are transferred to the electronic processing means which correlates the image signals of each of the targets with the true shape of each target. In so doing, the processing means relates the geometric characteristics and positional interrelationships of certain known elements of the target with the geometric characteristics and positional interrelationships of corresponding elements in the viewed images and calculates the position and/or alignment of the objects to which the targets are attached.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] An apparatus for determining wheel alignment of a motor vehicle comprising:a target adapted for attachment to a wheel of said vehicle, said target having a plurality of visually perceptible, geometrically configured target elements;a video camera having a field of view th

[ What is claimed is:] [1.] An apparatus for determining wheel alignment of a motor vehicle comprising:a target adapted for attachment to a wheel of said vehicle, said target having a plurality of visually perceptible, geometrically configured target elements;a video camera having a field of view that includes an image of said target when the target is attached to said wheel for inspection and viewed along a viewing path between said camera and said target, said camera providing information from said image relating to viewed geometric characteristics and positional relationships of said target elements;a processor relating said information provided by said camera to predetermined reference information describing known geometric characteristics and positional relationships of said target elements, wherein the angular orientation of said target relative to a spatial reference system is determined; anda display indicating the alignment of said wheel in accordance with information received from said processor.