Automatic optimization design of laser triangulation ranging sensors using an improved genetic algorithm

Optical system parameter design is of great importance to ensure the accuracy of asymmetry systems such as laser triangulation ranging systems. However, the system parameter determination often depends on the experience and manual attempts of designers, which is not only time-consuming but also inevitable to introduce human errors. Therefore, in this paper an automatic optimization design method based on nonlinear programming genetic algorithm with elitism strategy (E-NPGA) is proposed, to accurately and fast determine the optimal system parameters of laser triangulation ranging systems assisting in improving the measurement accuracy. Firstly, an optimization model of system parameters is developed under the Scheimpflug rule establishing the constraints for various measurement resolutions and ranges. An image size constraint is constructed for the first time to improve and evaluate the parameter optimization. Secondly, the E-NPGA is proposed with nonlinear optimization and elitism strategy, which can determine the optimal system parameters in 15 iterations avoiding local extremum. In design examples, using the E-NPGA determined system parameters ZEMAX simulation and experimental results of the parameters depended image spot size show a slight relative difference below 0.6%. Moreover, the experiment results demonstrate the sensor system designed by using the E-NPGA enables a distance measurement with submicron absolute error and $10^{-4}$ relative uncertainty. The automatic optimization method proposed in this paper is compared with the conventional GA method and PSO method, and it is validated that the convergence accuracy of the proposed method is much higher than the conventional ones.