A high precision optical angle measuring instrument for large optical axis offsets

In many industrial activities such as manufacturing and inspection, optical axis offsets measurement is an essential process for keeping and improving the quality of products. The laser autocollimation method is improved to detect the large angular displacement with high precision by using a re-imaging technology. A large optical screen made of frosted glass is located at the focal position of the objective lens instead of the detector. A precision CCD imaging system was employed to measure the displacement of the light spot on the optical screen. The sub-pixel position of center of the light spot can be obtained accurately through the centroid and Gaussian fit methods. The actual test results show that the total systematic error of the optical angle measuring instrument in the mode of measuring the range 8 degrees x8 degrees does not exceed 0.16'.