The large-scale spatial coordinate precision measuring instrument project, developed by Professor Wu Bin's team from Tianjin University for nearly 20 years, has completed company registration and started construction in the Taixing High-tech Zone, Taixing, Jiangsu province.
For a long time, the high-end precision measuring equipment market and technology have been monopolized by foreign enterprises, posing a key constraint on the development of strategic industries such as aviation, aerospace and shipbuilding in China.
The launch of this precision measurement project marks a crucial step toward China achieving independent and controllable development in this field.
The goal of the project team is to improve the accuracy and reduce the costs of high-end precision measuring equipment. The team has tried thousands of approaches and developed a new technical system, in partnership with the State Key Lab of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments at Tianjin University.
Zhang said that the innovative method of optical microwave ranging developed by the team can break the dependence on expensive high-performance lasers, reducing the cost of a single device's laser by 70 percent and achieving an international top-range accuracy of 0.6 micrometers/meter.
The team has also proposed the concept of non orthogonal axis system architecture for the first time in the world, breaking the traditional design rule that instruments must maintain strict verticality of the three axes. The new architecture reduces assembly difficulty and cost by about 40 percent, paving the way for high-quality and large-scale production.
In addition, the team's visual guidance technology can quickly identify and track feature points in complex industrial environments. It has been applied to long-distance automatic positioning of spacecraft, health monitoring of large bridges, and deformation warning of cooling towers in large power plants.
The rapid implementation of this project is attributed to an innovative mechanism that allocates research and development funds by establishing scientific research projects in advance. When the project gains market recognition and secures social financing, the initial investment can be converted into equity management or exited. At present, the first round of funding for the project has been secured.
"Our goal is not only to sell instruments, but also to provide completely autonomous industrial measurement solutions," said Wu. The project team is making every effort to promote laboratory construction and the development of the first engineering prototype. The next generation product development has also been launched, aiming to expand the measurement range to the hundred-meter level and improve accuracy by another order of magnitude.