A laser tracker is a portable coordinate measurement instrument that uses a laser beam to measure the three-dimensional position of a target. In manufacturing, it is commonly used for dimensional inspection, alignment, tooling verification, and large-part measurement where a fixed CMM may be impractical.
Laser trackers are often applied in aerospace, heavy equipment, shipbuilding, and other industries that handle large or complex parts. A typical setup measures a retroreflective target, such as a spherically mounted retroreflector, and records coordinates that can be compared with CAD models, GD&T requirements, inspection plans, or first article inspection records.
A laser tracker should not be confused with a laser scanner. A tracker primarily follows and measures discrete target positions with high accuracy over a large volume. Some systems can be combined with scanning probes or handheld scanners, but the core function is coordinate tracking rather than capturing dense surface point clouds.