Patent ID: 8102967

Claim:
A goniometer for measuring stresses and characterizing microstructure of particles, comprising a base, and a measurement head including both an X-ray tube and a detector arc movably adapted to the base by a robot capable of three dimensional movement, wherein the robot creating arc-formed movement of the measurement head during the measurement with rotating and tilting joints, and the robot determining a normal of the measurement point by measuring at least three points around the measurement point, determining the normal by touching the surface by a collimator of the goniometer, using a linear or nonlinear least square fit method for finding the coefficients of the formula of a plane representing the plane around the measurement point f ( x,y,z )= ax + by + cz + d and determining the normal of the measurementpoint by the formula N = ∇ f = [ a b c ] , where ∇f denotes the gradient.