Patent ID: 7333218

Claim:
A method of determining a location and an angular orientation of one or more holes with obstructed openings that reside on a surface of an article and includes at least one datum, comprising the steps of: providing a scanning system including a multi-axis controller, a laser spot projector, a laser spot sensor, a memory device and a processor; scanning a region of the surface containing the one or more holes by projecting a laser beam from the laser spot projector and receiving laser light reflections with the spot sensor while moving said projector and said sensor in relation to the article with said controller; storing digital points in said memory device as a point cloud representing the scanned region measured in relation to the at least one datum; and manipulating the point cloud with said processor by filtering the point cloud to remove points that are beyond a predetermined distance away from any other point in the point cloud, leaving a point cloud representing the surface to determine the location and angular orientation of the one or more holes in relation to the at least one datum.