Measurement of position synchronization of high-precision dual parallel motion stages by digital image correlation technique

In this paper, a method for measuring the synchronization error of high-precision dual parallel motion stages is presented. The method is based on a full-field measurement using two-dimensional digital image correlation (DIC) technology. Its outstanding advantage is that it allows users to take measurements in a reliable plane-to-plane manner. Combined with a digital microscope, the resolution of the measurement can reach micrometer level. The method also provides a measure of parallelism error between the stages, used to compensate for the initially measured synchronization error results. In order to demonstrate the method’s capabilities, a test case was carried out. In addition, the results obtained through DIC were statistically analyzed to improve their reliability. The final results indicated that this method is successful in the characterization of the position synchronization error.