By having a virtual environment of the system, it is pos-
sible to simulate the measurement itself and check for col-
lisions between the ultrasonic transducer and the other
parts of the system, thus increasing the protection of the
sensor head. This feature can also be useful in the early
phase of the process planning as the scanning time of a full
set of work-pieces could be measured by means of an off-
line simulation. Obviously, a robot connected to the com-
puter can be directly manipulated by using the desired
path. For special purposes, a motion tracking system has
also been implemented which ensures the direct control
of the robotic arm by defining the joint position or by
transmitting the tool position and orientation.