Patent ID: 7321841

Claim:
A method of measuring a three-dimensional surface shape of a workpiece (W) by moving a three-dimensional measuring unit mounted on a robot to trace a surface of said workpiece (W), comprising the steps of: setting and recording block data representing a measuring operation to cause said three-dimensional measuring unit to trace a predetermined area; setting a length (U) and/or a height (h) of said workpiece (W); selecting one of a plurality of basic shape types which is similar to a shape of said workpiece (W); duplicating said block data such that a hypothetical block representing said block data covers an area to be measured of the surface of said workpiece (W) which is projected onto a hypothetical space, depending on the selected basic shape type and the length (U) and/or the height (h) of said workpiece (W); measuring the surface shape of said workpiece (W) based on the duplicated block data; and recording positional data representing the measured surface shape of said workpiece.