Dimensional inspection, which consists in verifying the geometric conformity of parts in terms of specifications, is an essential step in the product life cycle. Recently, dimensional inspection has been increasingly based on multi-sensor measurement that allows a significant time saving. However, time saving is only meaningful if the quality of the results respects the metrological requirements. Indeed, the combined use of sensors of different technologies and characteristics generates issues that affect the measurement quality. In this work, an automatic inspection approach
using a scanner combining a contact sensor with a laser-plane sensor mounted on a CM M is proposed.

This approach aims to best use the abilities of each of the sensors, giving priority to measurement with the laser-plan sensor as soon as the required quality is obtained for time saving. The approach consists in defining a sequence of surface measurement operations that have specifications, called inspection features. Starting from a set of scanner orientations, the sequence of operations is established for each orientation by evaluating the ability of the laser sensor and then that of the probe to measure surfaces with the required quality. The inspection plan is completed by the optimal definition of the laser-plane sensor path and the probe path for each orientation. The final path executed on the CM M machine is obtained by transforming and assembling the two paths. At the end of the execution, the measurement with the two sensors leads to two heterogeneous point clouds that must be processed before the final evaluation of the specifications.