Laser Tracker Testing at NIST Using the ASME B89.4.19 Standard

Published

January 1, 2007

Author(s)

Balasubramanian Muralikrishnan, Christopher J. Blackburn, Daniel S. Sawyer, Bruce R. Borchardt, William T. Estler, Steven D. Phillips

Abstract

While the versatility and economics of laser trackers are quite appealing, the ability to assess their accuracy and to compare various brands has been limited by a lack of a national or international standard that encompasses testing and traceability procedures.  This situation has now changed.  In 2006, the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) board on Standardization and Testing approved the new B89.4.19 Standard - Performance Evaluation of Laser-Based Spherical Coordinate Measurement Systems, which appeared in print in January 2007. This Standard provides manufacturers and users with a common and well defined set of tests that can be performed to evaluate laser trackers and other spherical coordinate measurement systems that use cooperative targets. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the B89.4.19 tests, describe our large scale facilities at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and discuss some experimental results of B89.4.19 tests performed on commercial trackers.

Citation

The Journal of the CMSC

Volume

2

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Muralikrishnan, B. , Blackburn, C. , Sawyer, D. , Borchardt, B. , Estler, W. and Phillips, S. (2007), Laser Tracker Testing at NIST Using the ASME B89.4.19 Standard, The Journal of the CMSC, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=824608 (Accessed October 13, 2025)