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Visual inspection is a crucial final step when manufacturing products, as it determines if a product can be sold or rejected. The inspection is often performed manually by trained inspectors, which is time-consuming and often subjective. By automating the inspection, it can be performed faster and more accurately. Additionally, with faster and better results from inspection, faults in production can be noticed quickly and prevented, thus saving both money and resources. The automation often involves capturing images of the productand then analysing the images with a computer program. When capturing the images, the product must be in focus and under correct lighting. This master thesis set out to compare autofocus methods in the context of capturing images of optical filters for inspection. As the optical filters were highly reflective in the visual spectrum, the comparison was limited to autofocus methods proven to work on reflective surfaces. The literature proposes four autofocus methods for reflective surfaces. These four methods were compared regarding time, resolution, and working range. As these methods were designed for microscopes with high amplification and limited working range, they were overly complex and not applicable to the context of capturing images of optical filters. Therefore a more straightforward method with a lower resolution and larger working range that uses readily available components is proposed. The proposed method is a hybrid method using light triangulation and contrast detection, two standard autofocus methods for matte surfaces. The light triangulation quickly gives a rough focus, and then the final focus can iteratively be found with contrast detection. In the tests performed, the proposed method found focus and captured an image within 12 seconds. The proposed method achieved a resolution of just over 0.1 millimetres with a working range of 200 millimetres. / Visuell inspektion är ett avgörande sista steg under tillverkning, då det avgör ifall en produkt kan säljas eller ska kasseras. Inspekitonen genomförs ofta manuellt av tränade inspektörer vilket är tidskrävande och ofta subjektivt. Genom att automatisera inspektionen kan den genomföras snabbare och mer exakt. Dessutom med snabbare och bättre resultat från inspektionen så kan fel under produktionen upptäckas tidigt och förebyggas vilket sparar både pengar och resurser. Automatiseringen genomförs ofta genom att bilder på produkten tas och analyseras med ett datorprogram. När bilderna tas så är det viktigt att produkten är i fokus och under rätt belysning.  I detta mastersarbete så jämfördes olika autofokusmetoder i samband med att ta bilder på optiska filter för inspektion. Då de optiska filtren är högreflektiva i det synliga spektrumet så begränsades metoderna i jämförelsen till metoder som har visats fungera på reflektiva ytor. Litteraturen föreslår fyra autofokusmetoder för reflektiva ytor. Dessa fyra metoder jämfördes med avseende på tid, upplösning och arbetsområde. Då dessa metoder var designade för mikroskop med hög förstoring och begränsat arbetsområde så blev det tydligt att de var alltför komplicerade och inte applicerbara i samband med att ta bilder på optiska filter. Därför föreslås en enklare metod med lägre upplösning och större arbetsområde som använder lättillgängliga komponenter.  Den föreslagna metoden är en hybridmetod som använder ljustriangulering och kontrastdetektering, två vanliga autofokusmetoder för matta ytor. Ljustrianguleringen ger snabbt ett ungefärligt fokus och därefter kan det slutliga fokuset iterativt tas fram med kontrastdetektering. I testerna som genomfördes så hittade den föreslagna metoden korrekt fokus och en bild togs inom 12 sekunder. Metoden uppnådde en upplösning på drygt 0,1 millimeter och ett arbetsområde på 200 millimeter.

A multiple-sensor optical shape measurement system (SMS) based on the principle of white-light fringe projection has been developed and commercialised by Loughborough University and Phase Vision Ltd for over 10 years. The use of the temporal phase unwrapping technique allows precise and dense shape measurements of complex surfaces; and the photogrammetry-based calibration technique offers the ability to calibrate multiple sensors simultaneously in order to achieve 360° measurement coverage. Nevertheless, to enhance the applicability of the SMS in industrial environments, further developments are needed (i) to improve the calibration speed for quicker deployment, (ii) to broaden the application range from shape measurement to deformation field measurement, and (iii) to tackle practically-challenging surfaces of which specular components may disrupt the acquired data and result in spurious measurements. The calibration process typically requires manual positioning of an artefact (i.e., reference object) at many locations within the view of the sensors. This is not only timeconsuming but also complicated for an operator with average knowledge of metrology. This thesis introduces an automated artefact positioning system which enables automatic and optimised distribution of the artefacts, automatic prediction of their whereabouts to increase the artefact detection speed and robustness, and thereby greater overall calibration performance. This thesis also describes a novel technique that integrates the digital image correlation (DIC) technique into the present fringe projection SMS for the purpose of simultaneous shape and deformation field measurement. This combined technique offers three key advantages: (a) the ability to deal with geometrical discontinuities which are commonly present on mechanical surfaces and currently challenging to most deformation measurement methods, (b) the ability to measure 3D displacement fields with a basic single-camera single-projector SMS with no additional hardware components, and (c) the simple implementation on a multiple-sensor hardware platform to achieve complete coverage of large-scale and complex samples, with the resulting displacement fields automatically lying in a single global coordinate system. A displacement measurement accuracy of ≃ 1/12,000 of the measurement volume, which is comparable to that of an industry-standard DIC system, has been achieved. The applications of this novel technique to several structural tests of aircraft wing panels on-site at the research centre of Airbus UK in Filton are also presented. Mechanical components with shiny surface finish and complex geometry may introduce another challenge to present fringe projection techniques. In certain circumstances, multiple reflections of the projected fringes on an object surface may cause ambiguity in the phase estimation process and result in incorrect coordinate measurements. This thesis presents a new technique which adopts a Fourier domain ranging (FDR) method to correctly identifying multiple phase signals and enables unambiguous triangulation for a measured coordinate. Experiments of the new FDR technique on various types of surfaces have shown promising results as compared to the traditional phase unwrapping techniques.

Disertační práce se zabývá návrhem a optimalizací kruhově polarizované anténa pro oblast terahertzových kmitočtů. V práci se věnuji zjednodušené teorii terahertzového zdroje a návrhu vhodné antény pro tento zdroj. Návrh je zaměřen na dosažení kruhové polarizace z lineárně polarizovaných antén. Abych potlačil šíření povrchové vlny na elektricky tlustém dielektrickém substrátu, věnuji se návrhu a optimalizaci specifických periodických struktur. Návrh těchto struktur je poměrně komplikovaný, protože neexistuje přímočarý vztah mezi vlastnostmi struktur s elektromagnetickým zádržným pásmem (EBG) a geometrií buňky. Abych vhodně koncentroval vyzařovanou energii do úzkého svazku, věnuji se návrhu a optimalizaci částečně odrazného plochy (PRS), které působí jako planární čočka pro terahertzovou anténu.