The study of wear modes in conductive plastic potentiometers (CPPs) benefits from the extraction of three-dimensional (3D) topographies of abrasion scratches at various wear stages. Specialized surface topography measurement devices, such as laser interferometers, are costly for this task and require relatively clean laboratory environmental conditions, which are unsuitable for the harsh environment of wear testing areas. This limitation hampers the ease and lowers the frequency of topography measurements. To overcome these issues, this paper introduces a cost-effective vision-based 3D reconstruction method using an optical microscope. A standard optical metallographic microscope is used to capture images of the resistive film surface, and then computer vision algorithms based on aero-triangulation are utilized to reconstruct the abrasion scratch topographies. As demonstrated by the experimental results, the proposed method offers a balance between affordability and an engineering-acceptable resolution.

Topography,Vision-based 3D reconstruction,Potentiometer resistive film,Aero-triangulation,Abrasion scratch