Training program for the metric specification of imaging sensors

Measurement systems in industrial practice are becoming increasingly complex and the system-technical integration levels are increasing. Nevertheless, the functionalities can in principle always be traced back to proven basic functions and basic technologies, which should, however, be understood and developed. For this very reason, the teaching of elementary basics in engineering education is unavoidable. The present paper presents a concept to implement a contemporary training program within the practical engineering education on university level in the special subject area of optical coordinate measuring technology. The students learn to deal with the subject area in a fundamentally oriented way and to understand the system-technical integration in detail from the basic idea to the actual solution, which represents the common practice in the industrial environment. The training program is designed in such a way that the basics have to be worked out at the beginning, gaps in knowledge are closed by the aspect of group work and the targeted intervention of a supervisor. After the technology has been fully developed theoretically, the system is put into operation and applied with regard to a characterizing measurement. The measurement data are then evaluated using standardized procedures. A special part of the training program, which is to promote the own creativity and the comprehensible understanding, represents the evaluation of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the system by a self-developed algorithmic program section in the script-oriented development environment MALTAB, whereby students can supportively fall back on predefined functions for the evaluation, whose implementation however still must be accomplished.