Cooperative fusion of distributed multi-sensor LVM (Large Volume Metrology) systems

Large Volume Metrology (LVM) tasks often require the concurrent use of several distributed systems. Competitive or cooperative methods can be adopted for fusing multiple system data. Nowadays, competitive methods are by far the most diffused in LVM; these methods basically perform a weighted mean of 3D position measurements carried out by individual systems, with respect to the relevant uncertainties. This paper proposes a cooperative approach relying on the combination of angular and distance measurements (and relevant uncertainties) yielded by the sensors of each individual system. Preliminary simulations and experimental results concerning the application of this method are presented and discussed.