Measurement Science and Technology

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 Measurement Science and Technology

Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 (13pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6501/ab8971

A novel centerline extraction algorithm

for a laser stripe applied for turbine
blade inspection
Cheng Jiang1, Wen-long Li1, An Wu1 and Wen-yong Yu2
1
State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of
Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China
2
National NC System Engineering Research Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: ywy@hust.edu.cn

Received 23 February 2020, revised 9 April 2020

Accepted for publication 15 April 2020
Published 24 June 2020

Abstract
Line-laser 3D scanning is a novel and promising automation technique for turbine blade
inspection. One key task encountered in line-laser 3D scanning is centerline extraction of the
laser stripes. In some regions, there is asymmetry of the line profiles caused by high curvature,
such as the leading and trailing edges of a blade. According to the asymmetric Gaussian
distribution line profile, this paper presents a new algorithm to extract the centerline of a laser
stripe based on sub-pixel boundary extraction and medial axis transformation. The candidate
boundary points of the laser stripe are extracted by zero crossing. Based on Taylor expansion
and interpolation, the gray gradient distribution of the boundary can be estimated accurately.
Following this, the accurate boundary points are extracted by extreme values of the gray
gradient, and the centerline is calculated by medial axis transformation of the accurate boundary
points. The proposed method can effectively reduce errors caused by the asymmetry of line
profiles in areas of high curvature. The effectiveness of this method is verified using simulation
and measuring experiments. The experiment results show that the extraction error of the
asymmetric Gaussian line profile is within ± 0.15 pixels, and the root mean square error in
measurement accuracy experiments does not exceed 0.015 mm.
Keywords: centerline extraction, laser stripe, turbine blade inspection

(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction to the probe radius and contact angle. Due to manufacturing

Turbine blades are core components of aeroengines, gas
and steam turbines, and work under high-temperature, high-
pressure and alternate-load conditions. The geometric accur-
acy of the leading and trailing edges with high curvature
are critical for the aerodynamic performance of the blades.
Inspecting the leading and trailing edge accurately is import-
ant to ensure the quality and performance of blades. Currently,
the most common measurement method for complex surfaces
is a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) [1, 2]. As a contact
measurement method, one common task of a CMM is the com-
pensation of a probe [3, 4], which has a significant influence on
measuring accuracy. The compensation of the probe is related
errors, the contact angle is difficult to estimate accurately. The
manufacturing tolerances of the leading and trailing edges are
also higher than the pressure and suction surface of a turbine
blade, as shown in figure 1. Usually the measuring errors of
the leading and trailing edges are greater than the pressure and
suction surface.
Compared with contact measuring, optical non-contact 3D
measuring can collect higher-density and higher-frequency
data without probe compensation, and therefore has higher
efficiency and convenience. Three common optical non-
contact 3D scanners are used in complex surface meas-
uring, including point-laser displacement, line-laser profile
and structured-light 3D scanners [5]. At present, there are

1361-6501/20/095403+13$33.00 1 © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403
Trailing edge
Leading edge
Pressure surface
Tolerance Suction surface
Figure 1. Section profile of a turbine blade.
commercial optical non-contact 3D sensors, such as the ATOS
series from GOM and the AICON 3D system from Hexagon,
which are structured-light 3D scanners that can realize sur-
face measuring with high accuracy. Due to the large amount
of data collected from a single sampling, the measurement effi-
ciency of structured-light 3D scanners is relatively low. Line-
laser profile scanners are based on the laser triangulation prin-
ciple [6–8]. Compared with structured-light 3D scanners, they
only collect one section profile of an object measured at each
sampling. In the process of images, the algorithm only needs to
extract and reconstruct the feature of the laser stripe. Line-laser
profile scanners therefore have higher accuracy and sampling
frequency. They can also collect from the section of the turbine
blades directly. Chao et al [9] introduced an optical measur-
ing system which consists of two optical sensors based on the
laser triangulation method, to measure the leading and trailing
edges of blades. Li et al [10] proposed a calibration method of
a line-laser profile scanner and a rotating platform for turbine
blade inspection.
Due to the width of the laser stripe, the centerline is
regarded as the position of the laser stripe. The centerline of
a laser stripe should be extracted first; the 3D points of the
centerline can then be solved by the camera imaging model
and laser plane equation. The centerline accuracy of the laser
stripe is therefore a critical factor for measurement accuracy
[11, 12]. The centerline of the laser stripe can be extracted by
intensity thresholding [13]. Based on threshold selection, the
centerline is extracted by threshold segmentation. The altern-
ative is image thinning [14, 15], to extract the skeleton of the
laser stripe. Image thinning deletes boundary points by an iter-
ative process and the pixel-deletion criteria. The connectivity
of the points is preserved. Jang and Hong [16] extracted the
light center based on the Canny boundary detector and Euc-
lidean distance map. The centerline is extracted after remov-
ing unnecessary skeletal points. All single transverse electric
mode diode lasers are considered to be near quasi-Gaussian.
The laser beam can be accurately approximated by a Gaus-
sian distribution with a slightly narrower central maximum and
longer tail. The gray centroid method is a useful method to
extract the centerline from images [17, 18]. The method com-
putes the centerline by centroid estimation of each transversal
section. Steger [19] proposed a method based on differential
geometric properties of the image function. The local normal
direction of each image point is calculated by the eigenvalues
2
C Jiang et al
and eigenvectors of the Hessian matrix. Steger then further
analyzed the scale-space behavior of line profile and estab-
lished an error model [20, 21]. After removing the bias caused
by asymmetrical distribution of the line profile, the extraction
accuracy could be improved.
Turbine blades are complex surface parts, and the variety
of surface curvature changes greatly. Thus, the gray distri-
bution of the laser stripe on the surface may not be a single
distribution. It is therefore difficult for the conventional laser
stripe extraction method to realize accurate extraction. The
thresholding method depends on threshold selection, so the
result may contain a higher level of error caused by an unsuit-
able threshold. Due to giving only pixel-accurate results, it is
difficult to extract accurately with the image thinning method.
The gray centroid method is an integration method, and the
asymmetry of the laser stripe can result in bias of the center-
line extracted. Thus, it is only applicable to a symmetrical line
profile. Steger gave three types of line profile and proposed
an extraction algorithm based on a Hessian matrix. The para-
meter of the Gaussian kernel function in the Hessian matrix
method is related to the width of the laser stripe. Thus, the
centerline position extracted by a Hessian matrix needs to be
compensated for with an offset value based on different para-
meters. However, a complete description of the bias is com-
plex. The model of the bias must consider all combinations of
parameters, such as width, asymmetry, and so on. The relation
of the model parameters and quantities that can be extracted
from the image must be derived.
In this paper, a new extraction algorithm for the center-
line position of the laser stripe based on accurate boundary
extraction and medial axis transformation of boundary points
has been carried out. The new method can achieve unbiased
centerline extraction of the laser stripe. The remaining sections
of this paper are arranged as follows. In section 2, the charac-
teristics of line-laser profile scanner and laser stripe images
are analyzed. In section 3, the method of extracting the center-
line of the laser stripe is proposed, and the details of boundary
point and centerline extraction for the laser stripe image are
also presented. Both the extraction and measurement accuracy
experiments are carried out and analyzed in section 4. Finally,
the discussion and conclusion are given in section 5.
2. Characteristics of line-laser profile scanner and
laser stripe images
2.1. Line-laser profile scanner
A line-laser profile scanner is mainly composed of a cam-
era and a diode line laser. The measuring principle of line-
laser profile scanners is shown in figure 2. The camera in the
line-laser profile scanner captures the images of laser stripe
which is projected on measured object. Assume that one point
of laser plane in the world coordinate system {W} is W pi =
(xi yi zi ) 1T . Point I pi = (ui vi 1)T is the corres-
ponding point in the image plane coordinate system {I}. Sym-
bol {C} denotes the camera coordinate system. Based on the
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Figure 3. Image collected by a camera.

Figure 2. Measuring principle of line-laser profile scanners.

camera imaging principle, the point W pi is transformed to the

point I pi :

 
    xi
ui αx γ u0 0 ( )
R t  yi 
I
pi = zi vi  =  0
 αy v0 0   
0T 1  zi 
1 0 0 1 0
1
= M 1 M 2 W pi (1)

where the matrix M1 is the camera intrinsic parameters con-

sisting of focal length αx and αy , image sensor format γ and
principal point u0 and v0 . The matrix M1 is the camera extrinsic
parameters, which denote the coordinate system transforma-
tions R, t from world coordinates to camera coordinates. The
projected line-laser forming a plane in the world coordinate
system is defined: Figure 4. Asymmetric Gaussian distribution.

Axi + Byi + Czi + D = 0 (2)

where A, B, C and D are the parameters of the laser plane in
the world coordinate system {W}.
According to equations (1) and (2), the point W pi of the laser
plane in the world coordinate system {W} can be solved. The
camera parameters in equation (1) and the laser plane in equa-
tion (2) can be calculated accurately by a calibration board.
The point I pi of the laser stripe in equation (1), which is the
the casting turbine blades is an approximate Lambert surface.
There may be mixed reflection on the surface. In addition, due
to uneven illumination distribution in practical measurement
conditions, the gray distribution may be an asymmetric Gaus-
sian distribution, as shown in figure 4. The ideal asymmetric
Gaussian line profile is defined in equation (4):
x2

intersection of the measured object and the laser plane, needs fsg (x) = e− 2w2 (3)
to be extracted. Thus, the extraction accuracy of the laser stripe
is the critical factor in improving the accuracy of line-laser pro-
file scanners. ( x2
e− 2w2 , x≤0
fag (x) = x2
(4)
−
2.2. Gray distribution of laser stripe a + (1 − a) e 2w2 , x>0

In an image collect mono camera, the information of the laser
stripe is expressed by the discrete gray distribution. Accord-
ing to luminous theory of a diode laser, the line profile along
the normal direction in figure 3 can be approximated by a
Gaussian distribution. The ideal symmetric Gaussian line pro-
file with width w is defined in equation (3). The surface of
where a denotes the asymmetric degree of the laser stripe
shown in figure 4.
A practical image of blade inspection collected by the cam-
era of a line-laser profile scanner is shown in figure 5. In the
yellow box, the gray distribution of a profile along the nor-
mal direction is shown in figure 6. Due to over-exposure of the

3
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Figure 5. Practical image of turbine blade inspection collected by

the camera.

Figure 7. Practical measuring image of ceramic ball.

defined as a convolution with derivatives of the Gaussian fil-

ter. The parameter of the Gaussian kernel function in the Hes-
sian matrix method is related to the width of the laser stripe.
Thus, the extraction accuracy of the Hessian matrix method
Figure 6. Gray distribution of a profile along the normal direction. is sensitive to the width of the laser stripe. During complex
surface part measurements, the curvature of the measured sur-
laser stripe, the line profile is not an ideal asymmetric Gaussian face is changeable. Thus, the gray distribution of the laser
distribution. The gray distribution of this stripe is a Gaussian stripe is not a standard Gaussian distribution. Additionally,
curve with a platform. the width change of the laser stripe could affect the accur-
According to actual distribution, the line profile fp (x) can acy of extraction. Therefore, asymmetry distribution and width
be described as a combination of a bar-shaped and Gaussian change must be considered in extraction of the laser stripe.
line profile. The profile model on the boundary is the asymmet-
ric Gaussian line profile of width w and asymmetry h ∈ [0,1): 3. Proposed algorithm

 x2 3.1. Centerline extraction based on boundary
 e− 2w x ≤ −xb
fp (x) = h −xb > x > xb (5) The boundary of the laser stripe can be regarded as an asym-

 x2
a − (1 − a) e− 2w x ≥ xb metric Gaussian distribution. The first and second derivative
of the line profile boundary can be calculated:
where xb denotes width of the bar-shaped profile and the para- (
meter h ∈ [0,1] is the profile height. x2
− wx2 e− 2w2 x ≤ −xb
′
The traditional laser stripe extraction method, such as the fp (x) = 2 (6)
(1−a)x − x 2
gray centroid or Hessian matrix method, cannot overcome − w2 e 2w x ≥ xb
the influence of laser stripe asymmetry. A practical image of
a ceramic ball measured with a line-laser profile scanner is ( x2
x2 −w2 − 2w2
shown in figure 7. The width w of the laser stripe can change w4 e x ≤ −xb
fp′ ′ (x) = (a−1)(w2 −x2 ) − x2
. (7)
significantly with the change of the surface curvature. Com- e 2w2 x ≥ xb
w4
pared with the center of the laser stripe, the width of the edge is
more significantly narrow, the discrepancy of which is approx- The boundary positions x1 = w and x2 = −w of the ideal
imate five to ten pixels. According to scale-space theory, the line profile can be extracted by solving equation fl′ ′ (x) = 0.
second-order partial derivatives of an input image at a point are The asymmetry a does not affect the accuracy of boundary

4
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

extraction. Accordingly, the centerline positions can be calcu-

lated by medial axis transform of the left and right boundary.
The gray gradient Mf of the boundary is considered continu-
ous. The boundary of the laser stripe is divided into the left
boundary cel and right boundary cer . The boundary is calcu-
lated by the maximum of the first-order derivative in equation
(8). Then, the centerline cp of the laser stripe is calculated by
medial axis transform of the left boundary cel and right bound-
ary cer in equation (9):


 − x
2
 − wx2 e 2w2 x ≤ −xb
boundary = arg max (Mf ) ; Mf = Figure 8. Thresholding image.

 (1−a)x
2
− x2
R:{(x,y)}  − w2 e 2w x ≥ xb
(8)

cp = MAT(cel , cer ). (9)

In image processing, the boundary points can be extrac-

ted by a gradient operator and zero-crossing detection. Based
on the boundary points, the centerline is calculated. Because
the accuracy of the boundary extraction is not affected by the
asymmetry of the line profile, the centerline can be extracted
accurately.

3.2. Boundary candidate point extraction

Input image Clipping
During the processing of an image of the laser stripe, the image
candidate points of the boundary are extracted by a Lapla-
cian of Gaussian (LoG) filter. The LoG filter uses Gaus- Figure 9. Clipping image.
sian convolution to denoise. The candidate points are then
extracted by applying the Laplacian operator. First, the
Otsu method is used to pre-process an original input image
I (x, y) (x ∈ (0, r) , x ∈ (0, c)). Assuming that the image con- IROI (x, y) (x ∈ (0, r0 ) , y ∈ (0, c0 )) (12)
sists of two classes, an optimum threshold t separating the two
classes (foreground pixels and background pixels) is calcu- where r0 and c0 denote the width and length of the clipping
lated so that their inter-class variance σω2 is minimized: image respectively.
According to asymmetric Gaussian distribution, the can-
didate points of a boundary can be detected by zero-crossing
σω2 (t) = ω0 (t) × σ02 (t) + ω1 (t) × σ12 (t) (10)
boundary detection. An LoG filter is an effective bound-
ary detector and can reduce some noise. The clipping image
where ω0 and ω1 are the probabilities of the two classes separ- IROI (x, y) is convolved by a Gaussian kernel G (x, y, t). At
ated by a threshold t. The symbols σ02 and σ12 are variances of a certain scale s, the convolution is given by a scale-space
these two classes. representation in equation (14). Then, the result ILoG (x, y) of
To reduce computation, the original images are clipped applying the Laplacian operator is computed in equation (15).
based on region of interest (ROI). By using the Otsu method, The boundary points of the image can be extracted by zero-
the input image I (x, y) is converted to a binary image Ib (x, y) crossing detection of ILoG (x, y). The process of boundary pre-
shown in figure 8. There is a significant difference between detection is shown in figure 10:
foreground containing the object and the background in the
binary image. ROI can be regarded as a bounding box, defined 1 − x2 +y2
G (x, y, t) = e 2t (13)
in equation (11). Maximum coordinate values xmax , ymax and 2πt
minimum coordinate values xmin , ymin are calculated by the
foreground in the binary image. After clipping, the image
coordinate system has changed defined in equation (12), L (x, y, s) = G (x, y, s) ∗ IROI (x, y) (14)
shown in figure 9:

Ib (x, y) (x ∈ (xmin , xmax ) , y ∈ (ymin , ymax )) (11) ILoG (x, y) = ∇2 [G (x, y, s) ∗ IROI (x, y)] . (15)

5
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

derivative rx can be calculated by convolution of the Gaus-

Input image sian kernel partial derivative Gx (x, y, s) and image IROI (x, y).
The partial derivative ry can also be calculated with the same
method:
Gaussian
convolution arg max (Mf (x, y)) (17)
(x,y)∈UR

Laplacian q
p
operator Mf = dx2 + dy2 ≈ rx 2 + ry 2 (18)

Zero-crossing 
detection rx = Gx (x, y, s) ∗ IROI (x, y)
. (19)
ry = Gy (x, y, s) ∗ IROI (x, y)
Figure 10. Process of boundary pre-detection.

Assuming that the boundary points are continuous differ-

Zero-crossing detection has two criteria, as follows. (i) The entiable, the Taylor series expansion of gradient value Mf is
diagonal elements of the LoG operator are unequal. The dif- calculated:
ference of the diagonal elements is greater than threshold
tgrad = threshL × max (ILoG (x, y)). (ii) The gray value of the Mf (dx, dy) = Minital + M1 u + uT M2 u (20)
current pixel is greater than tgray . The process of zero-crossing
T
detection is shown in figure 11. The candidate points of the where u = (dx, dy) . The matrix M1 is defined by the first-
boundary UR are extracted by zero-crossing boundary detec- order partial derivative of the gradient value in equation
tion, shown in figure 12. Due to lower intensity at the ends of (21). The matrix M2 is defined by the second-order partial
the laser stripe, the change of gray value and gradient is smaller derivative (22):
than the threshold tgray and tgrad respectively. Thus, the candid-  
∂M ∂M
ate points may not be extracted at the ends of the laser stripe: M1 = , (21)
∂x ∂y

UR = {(x, y) | (x, y) ∈ IROI (x, y) , ILoG (x, y) = 0} . (16) ∂M ∂M

!
∂2x ∂ xy
M2 = ∂M ∂M
. (22)
∂ xy ∂2y

3.3. Boundary points accurate extraction

Based on expansion of equation (20), the gradient
Based on the candidate points UR which are only pixel accur- value Mf is calculated in equation (23). The symbols
ate, the proposed method uses the second-order Taylor expan- mx , my , mxx , mxy , myy respectively denote the first order par-
sion and interpolation to realize accurate boundary extraction. tial derivative ∂∂Mx , ∂∂My and the second order partial derivative
Interpolation of the gradient magnitude is adopted to recon- ∂M ∂M ∂M
∂ 2 x , ∂ 2 xy , ∂ 2 y . The matrices M1 and M2 can be estimated by
struct the local gradient function Mf (x, y) of the candidate the convolution of the gradient operator and gradient value Mf
points. Then, sub-pixel accurate boundary points are the max- in equation (24):
imum of the local gradient Mf (x, y). The gradient value Mf
is calculated by a partial derivative in the x and y direction Mf (dx, dy) = Minital + my dy + mx dx
in equation (18). According to scale-space theory, the partial 1 1
+ mxx dx2 + mxy dxdy + myy dy2 (23)
2 2

    

 −1 −1 −1 −1 0 1

 1


∂M
∂x = 6
0 0 0  ∗ Mf (x, y) ∂∂My = 61  −1 0 1  ∗ Mf (x, y)



 1 1 1 −1 0 1

    


 1 1 1 1 −2 1
1  ∗ Mf (x, y) ∂2M = 1  1 −2
∂M
= −2 −2 −2 1  ∗ Mf (x, y) . (24)

2
∂ x 6 ∂ y 6

 1 1 1 1 −2 1



  

 1 0 −1



 ∂M 1
0 0 0  ∗ Mf (x, y)

 ∂ xy = 4
−1 0 1

6
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Figure 11. Process of zero-crossing detection (symbol sgn(x) is signum function).

Figure 13. Sub-pixel extraction boundary points (yellow points are

coordinate points; red points are sub-pixel boundary points).
Figure 12. The candidate points of the boundary (red points).

of sub-pixel accurate boundary points is shown in figure 14:

However, it is difficult to calculate arg max (Mf (dx, dy)).
dx,dy
nx m x + ny m y
Based on the gray distribution of the laser stripe, there is δ=− (27)
greater change of the gradient on the normal direction (nx , ny ) n2x mxx + 2nx ny mxy + n2y myy
of the boundary region. On the tangential direction, the gradi-
ent value is almost constant. The normal direction (nx , ny ) can
be calculated by the eigenvector of the Hessian matrix H in (∆x, ∆y) = (δnx , δny ) (28)
T
equation (25). Substituting u = (δnx , δny ) into (23), the deriv-
ative of Mf is calculated in equation (26):
  pe = (xc + ∆x, yc + ∆y) . (29)
rxx rxy
(nx , ny ) = eigvec(H) = eigvec (25)
rxy ryy The proposed method estimates the gray gradient distribu-
tion based on Taylor expansion and interpolation. The accurate
boundary points are extracted by calculating the zero point of
∂ the second-order partial derivative.
Mf (δnx , δny ) = nx mx + ny my + δn2x mxx
∂δ
+ 2δnx ny mxy + δn2y myy (26)
3.4. Centerline extraction based on medial axis transform
∂
where δ is calculated by ∂δ Mf (δnx , δny ) = 0 in (27). After Based on Taylor expansion and interpolation, the sub-pixel
solving parameter δ, the relative coordinate (∆x, ∆y) of the boundary points pe are extracted. The set Ue of the sub-pixel
boundary points is calculated in equation (28). If the relat- boundary points can be segmented into the left boundary Uel
ive coordinate (∆x, ∆y)  of the current
 candidate point pc ∈ and right boundary Uer based on gradient direction (nx , ny ).
UR meets (∆x, ∆y) ∈ − 12 12 × − 12 12 , the sub-pixel The proposed method uses an inscribed circle of left and right
accurate boundary point shown in figure 13 can be calculated boundary points to calculate and extract the medial axis as the
by the offset of the current point in equation (29). The process centerline position, as shown in figure 15.

7
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403
Figure 14. Process of sub-pixel accurate boundary points.
Figure 15. Extraction centerline based on the inscribed circle.
Figure 16. Result of centerline extraction (yellow points are
centerline; red points are boundary points).
The process of centerline extraction is shown as follows.
(a) For an arbitrary point piel of left boundary Uel , an initial
radius r0 is given. An inscribed circle Ciel can be calculated
by line width and normal direction. The center of the circle
Ciel is oi . The nearest point pier of center oi in the set of right
boundary points Uer can be found by a k-d tree search.
(b) The point piel and its corresponding point per i
can form a
i ′
pair. An inscribed circle Cel is calculated based on them.
′ ′
A new center of the circle Ciel is oi . A new radius of the
′ ′
circle Ciel is ri .
′
(c) Let point oi be the center to search for the nearest point
′
pier in the set Uer − pier .
(d) Repeat step (b) based on the point piel and its new corres-
′
ponding point pier ; a new radius can be calculated. Repeat
step (c) and (d) until the radius of the inscribed circle gen-
erated remain unchangeable. Now, the center of inscribed
8
C Jiang et al
circle is ci . The corresponding point of point
piel is pler . The
inscribed circle can be defined by piel , pler , ci and ci is the
center point corresponding to point piel .
Because extracted boundary points are not affected by the
asymmetry of the line profile, the centerline can be accurately
extracted by medial axis transform. Since the centerline is the
center path of the maximum inscribed circle, the proposed
method mainly applies to continuous surface parts.
4. Experiments and analysis
To validate the effectiveness of the centerline extraction
algorithm of the laser stripe proposed in this paper, extraction
accuracy experiments use images generated based on an asym-
metric Gaussian to evaluate extraction errors. Based on the
proposed method, a line-laser profile scanner is developed by
our research group. Measurement accuracy experiments use
single standard sphere and sphere-bar to evaluate the measur-
ing accuracy of the scanner. A turbine blade sample is scanned
by the scanner. The result of the section parameter is compared
with CMM.
4.1. Extraction accuracy experiments
In extraction accuracy experiments, the images used are gener-
ated based on an asymmetric Gaussian line profile fag (x, a, w).
The asymmetry parameter a changes from 0 to 0.5 at inter-
vals of 0.01. The width parameter w is 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5,
respectively. The width of the line in an image is the product
of the width parameter w and ten pixels. The image size is
320 × 240 pixels. A total of 50 images are generated for a
width used to extract the line position using the Hessian matrix
method and the proposed method. The images generated with
width w = 2.5 and asymmetry a = 0, 0.15, 0.30 are shown in
figure 17.
First, the Hessian matrix method is used to extract
the centerline position CHavg . The extraction deviations
eH1.5 , eH2.5 , eH3.5 are acquired by comparing with the theoret-
ical value. Then, the proposed method uses the same images to
extract the line position CPavg and obtain the extraction devi-
ations eP1.5 , eP2.5 , eP3.5 . The extraction results are shown in
figure 18.
The errors of the proposed method compared with the Hes-
sian matrix method are shown in figure 19. The errors of the
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Table 1. Certified results of the standard ceramic sphere used in

experiments by the CMM.
Diameter Profile error

Sphere 1 50.7980 mm 0.0012 mm

Expanded uncertainty U = 0.0008
w=2.5 a=0 w=2.5 a=0.15 w=2.5 a=0.30 Coverage factor k=2

Figure 17. Images of the extraction accuracy experiment.

Table 2. Deviations of the proposed method compared with the
certified diameter.
Hessian matrix method increase with the increase of asym- Sequence Diameter (mm) Deviation (mm)
metry a. The parameter ofGaussian kernel function in the Hes-
sian matrix method is related to the width of the laser stripe. 1 50.8118 0.0138
Thus, the extraction accuracy of the Hessian matrix method is 2 50.8176 0.0196
sensitive to the width of the laser stripe. The proposed method 3 50.8099 0.0119
uses the second-order Taylor expansion and interpolation to 4 50.7833 −0.0147
5 50.8151 0.0171
extract accurate boundary points. The centerline can then be
6 50.8069 0.0089
accurately extracted by medial axis transform. Thus, there is
7 50.7828 −0.0152
no obvious change of the proposed method with the different 8 50.7857 −0.0123
asymmetry a. The errors of the proposed method are stabil- 9 50.7909 −0.0071
ized at around ±0.15 pixels. In addition, there is no obvious 10 50.7837 −0.0143
relationship between line width and extraction error. Mean deviation (mm) 0.0008
Limit deviation (mm) 0.0343
Root mean square error (mm) 0.0139
4.2. Measurement accuracy experiments

The mechanical structure of the measurement device shown

in figure 20 consists of a line-laser profile scanner, a translat-
ing platform, and a rotating platform, which are fixed on an
anti-vibration platform. The line-laser profile scanner shown
in figure 21 is developed by our research group. The sensor is
composed of an industrial camera and a diode line laser. The
model of the camera is a Daheng MER-130-UM. The resolu-
tion is 1280 × 1024 pixels. The resolution of the z-axis (depth)
of the sensor is 0.006 ~ 0.01 mm. The resolution of the x-axis
(width) is 0.012–0.016 mm. The ranges of the z-axis (depth)
and x-axis (width) are 250 ~ 400 mm and 100 ~ 140 mm,
respectively. The measurement accuracy experiment consists
of two parts. The first experiment uses a single standard sphere
whose diameters have been certified to evaluate the measure-
ment error. The experiment process is shown in figure 22. The
sensor moves along the translation platform, and scans six sec-
tion planes of the single standard sphere. The profile results
are used to fit the sphere. The diameters certified as well as the
profile errors of the single standard sphere certified by a legal
measuring institution are shown in table 1.
The deviations of the proposed method compared with the
certified diameter are shown in table 2. The mean deviation,
limit deviation and root mean square error are 0.0008, 0.0343,
and 0.0139 mm, respectively. According to the guide to the
expression of uncertainty in measurement [22], three further
kinds of uncertainty can be calculated from the data in table 2.
Type A: standard uncertainty, Type B: standard uncertainty,
and expanded uncertainty (coverage probability = 95%, cov-
erage factor = 2) are 0.0046 mm, 0.0127 mm and 0.0272 mm,
respectively.
The deviations of the Hessian matrix method compared
with the certified diameter are shown in table 3. The
mean deviation, limit deviation and root mean square error
are −0.0203, 0.1212, and 0.0371 mm, respectively. The
three kinds of uncertainty are 0.0104 mm, 0.0425 mm and
0.0879 mm, respectively.
The second experiment uses a standard ceramic sphere-bar
composed of two standard spheres. The accuracy experiments
refer to VDI/VDE 2634-3. The accuracy is evaluated by a
sphere-bar under different positions. The experiment process
is shown in figure 23. The standard sphere-bar is measured on
the rotating platform shown under different positions, illus-
trated in figure 24. The angle of the rotating platform changes
from 0◦ to 360◦ at intervals of 36◦ . When the standard sphere-
bar rotates to the corresponding degrees, the sensor moves
along the translation platform, and scans six section planes
of the standard sphere-bar. The center distance between two
spheres of the sphere-bar is certified by a legal measuring insti-
tution, and the certified results are shown in table 4. These are
nominal values to evaluate deviation in the experiment. After
collecting the primitive data, the profile results under differ-
ent poses are used to fit spheres, and the center distances are
calculated based on the fitting results.
The deviations of the proposed method compared with the
certified standard center distance of two standard spheres are
shown in table 5. The mean deviation, limit deviation and
root mean square error are −0.0008, 0.0345, and 0.0134 mm,
respectively. Three kinds of uncertainty are also calculated
from the data in table 5. The Type A standard uncertainty,
Type B standard uncertainty and expanded uncertainty (cover-
age probability = 95%, coverage factor = 2) are 0.0044 mm,
0.0122 mm and 0.0261 mm, respectively.
The deviations of the Hessian matrix method compared
with the certified standard center distance are shown in
table 6. The mean deviation, limit deviation and root mean

9
Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

w=1.5 a=0 w=1.5 a=0.15 w=1.5 a=0.3

CHavg=159.985 CPavg=159.987 CHavg=160.243 CPavg= 160.010 CHavg=160.515 CPavg= 160.001

w=2.5 a=0 w=2.5 a=0.15 w=2.5 a=0.3

CHavg=159.991 CPavg=160.049 CHavg=160.174 CPavg=160.006 CHavg=160.391 CPavg=159.967

w=3.5 a=0 w=3.5 a=0.15 w=3.5 a=0.3

CHavg=159.998 CPavg=159.973 CHavg=160.176 CPavg=159.932 CHavg=160.379 CPavg=159.947

Figure 18. Extraction results (blue points are the boundary; red points are the centerline extracted by the proposed method; yellow points
are the centerline extracted by the Hessian matrix method).

square error are −0.0203, 0.1212, and 0.0371 mm, respect-
ively. The three kinds of uncertainty are 0.0138 mm,
0.0454 mm and 0.0955 mm, respectively.
According to the experimental results, the accuracy of
the proposed method applied to a line-laser profile scan-
ner developed by our research group is superior to the Hes-
sian matrix method. The results of the measurement accur-
acy experiment represent the measurement error of the exper-
iment device; the components of the error mainly include
the line-laser scanner measurement error, the translating plat-
form motion error, and the translating direction calibration.
In image processing, the second-order partial derivatives of
a Hessian matrix are Gaussian derivatives. Thus, the extrac-
tion accuracy of the Hessian matrix method is sensitive to
the width of the laser stripe. Based on accurate estimation of
the boundary gray gradient distribution, the proposed method
does not need Gaussian derivatives, and centerline extraction
is more accurate. The line-laser profile scanner can achieve
higher precision measurement. The result shows the line-laser
profile scanner based on the proposed method is suitable for
inspecting casting turbine blades with 0.1 mm ~ 0.3 mm cast-
ing tolerance.
4.3. Turbine blade measurement
In the third experiment, a machined blade is measured
and evaluated the profile errors. The size of the blade is
200 mm × 120 mm × 50 mm. During the measuring process,
the blade is fixed on the fixture of the rotating platform. Before
the experiment, the rotating platform is calibrated based on the
method in [10], which uses a Leica A901 MR laser tracker
with a T-probe. In the measurement, four sections of the blade
are measured, and the point clouds generated are shown in
figure 25. To acquire complete data of a section, the blade

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Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Industrial
camera

axis

Diode line
laser
X-axis

Figure 21. Line-laser profile scanner.

Figure 19. Extraction errors compared with the Hessian matrix

method.

Translating
platform
Line-laser
Figure 22. Experiment process of single standard sphere.
profile scanner

Blade

Anti-vibration Figure 23. Experiment process of standard sphere-bar.

platform Rotating
platform

Figure 20. Measurement device.

measured need to rotate around the rotation axis. The point

cloud of the blade is processed by iPoint3D software. iPoint3D
is a point cloud processing software developed by our research
group. The profile errors of the blade are calculated by the soft-
ware. The comparison results of the profile errors between the Figure 24. Sphere-bar on the rotating platform under different
measurement device and the CMM (Hexagon Global Classic positions.
SR) are shown in table 7. To measure the same section of the
same target, the section height is determined by a datum plane,
which is defined in the upper plane of the blade dovetail. errors of the line-laser profile scanner, calibration errors of the
The calculated absolute errors of the maximum gauge of the translating platform and rotating platform, motion errors and
blade do not exceed 0.25 mm and the calculated absolute errors extraction errors of the blade parameters. Thus, the measuring
of the leading and trailing edges of the blade do not exceed errors in table 7 are poorer than the measuring accuracy of the
0.06 mm. The calculated absolute errors include the measuring line-laser profile scanner.

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Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Table 3. Deviations of the Hessian matrix method compared with Table 6. Deviations of the Hessian matrix method compared with
the certified diameter. the certified standard center distance.
Sequence Diameter (mm) Deviation (mm) Sequence Center distance (mm) Deviation (mm)

1 50.7974 −0.0006 1 60.0689 −0.0176

2 50.7823 −0.0157 2 60.1373 0.0508
3 50.7097 −0.0883 3 60.1890 0.1025
4 50.7716 −0.0264 4 60.1317 0.0452
5 50.7531 −0.0449 5 60.0690 −0.0175
6 50.8104 0.0124 6 60.1058 0.0193
7 50.7702 −0.0278 7 60.1504 0.0639
8 50.7728 −0.0252 8 60.1084 0.0219
9 50.7783 −0.0197 9 60.1246 0.0381
10 50.8309 0.0329 10 60.1984 0.1119
Mean deviation (mm) −0.0203 Mean deviation (mm) 0.0419
Limit deviation (mm) 0.1212 Limit deviation (mm) 0.1295
Root mean square error (mm) 0.0371 Root mean square error (mm) 0.0589

Table 4. Certified results of the standard ceramic sphere-bar used in

experiments by the CMM.
Center distance Profile error

Sphere 1 0.0010 mm
60.0865 mm
Sphere 2 0.0013 mm
Expanded uncertainty U = 0.0010
Coverage factor k=2

Figure 25. Profile measurement of the turbine blade by the

Table 5. Deviations of the proposed method compared with the
certified standard center distance. measurement device.

Sequence Center distance (mm) Deviation (mm)

1 60.1023 0.0158
2 60.0678 −0.0187 Finally, the centerline position is calculated based on medial
3 60.0994 0.0129 axis transform of the sub-pixel boundary points. Due to accur-
4 60.0706 −0.0159 ate extraction of the boundary points, the proposed method can
5 60.0957 0.0092 achieve extraction of the laser stripe in turbine blade inspec-
6 60.0968 0.0103 tion. In addition, both an extraction and measurement accur-
7 60.0992 0.0127 acy experiment applied to the line-laser scanner developed by
8 60.0720 −0.0145 our research group are carried out. The simulation experiments
9 60.0772 −0.0093 observe that the extraction error of the asymmetric Gaussian
10 60.0756 −0.0109
line profile is within ±0.15 pixel. The root square mean error
Mean deviation (mm) −0.0008
applied to the line-laser scanning experimental platform does
Limit deviation (mm) 0.0345
Root mean square error (mm) 0.0134 not exceed 0.015 mm. The results indicate that the proposed
method can be used to extract line position when applied to
the inspection of casting turbine blades.
5. Conclusion

This paper deals with the problem of line position extraction
for a line-laser scanner, in order to extract the sub-pixel center-
line of the laser stripe in the image. In the proposed method,
the input image is first preprocessed to reduce the computation.
The boundary candidate points of the laser stripe are extrac-
ted based on an LoG operator and zero-crossing detection.
Based on Taylor expansion and interpolation, the gray gradi-
ent distribution of the boundary can be estimated accurately.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51535004, 51775214,
51635007), the Technology Innovation Special Project of
Hubei Province (Grant No. 2019AAA008), and the Funda-
mental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.
2019kfyXKJC046).

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Meas. Sci. Technol. 31 (2020) 095403 C Jiang et al

Table 7. Measurement results of maximum gauge, leading edge and trailing edge in four sections.

Maximum gauge (mm) The radius of the leading edge (mm) The radius of the trailing edge (mm)
Section Measured value CMM value Error Measured value CMM value Error Measured value CMM value Error

Section 1 15.3345 15.5683 −0.2338 5.0676 5.0494 0.0182 3.5185 3.5764 −0.0579
Section 2 15.4597 15.6458 −0.1861 5.0791 5.0456 0.0335 3.5523 3.6105 −0.0582
Section 3 16.0195 16.1185 −0.0990 5.1373 5.0824 0.0549 3.6189 3.6378 −0.0189
Section 4 16.6733 16.5328 0.1405 5.1498 5.0929 0.0569 3.6591 3.6333 0.0258

ORCID iDs [10] Li W L, Wu A, Li Z C, Zhang G and Yu W Y 2017 A new

Cheng Jiang  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3084-1321
Wen-long Li  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5351-7076
Wen-yong Yu  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4012-1264
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