Patent ID: 6956657

Claim:
A method for synthesizing a full-aperture numerical data map of a test surface of an object from a plurality of overlapping sub-aperture data maps of said surface, comprising the steps of: a) collecting said plurality of sub-aperture numerical data maps of said surface from a plurality of regions of said surface, at least a portion of each such map overlapping a portion of at least one adjacent map to create a region of overlapping data; b) projecting said plurality of overlapping data maps onto a global coordinate system with a nominal distortion map; c) selecting a plurality of error compensators from one of two groups consisting of free compensators having free amplitude range and interlocked compensators having identical constrained amplitudes to compensate for stitching errors in said overlapping data regions; and d) simultaneously minimizing mismatch of data from each of said data maps in said overlapping regions through linear combinations of said compensators.