A light beam reflected from a machined surface generally containes information concerning about its surface roughness. This study examines and proposes a surface roughness measurement technique for on-machine measurement of machined surfaces. The technique is based on the measurement of a reflected laser beam pattern and the statistical analysis of its light intensity distribution. The surface roughness was found to be closely related to the standard deviation of the light intensity on the primary axis of the reflected pattern. An image acquisition device is made up of a laser diode, a half mirror, a screen, and a CCD camera. The exact image with the primary and secondary axes of a reflected laser beam pattern is calculated through such image processing algorithm as thresholding, edge detection, image rotation, segmentation, etc. A median filter and a surrounding light correction algorithm are improve the image quality and reduce the measuring error. Using the developed measuring device the effect of screen materials and workpiece and workpiece materials was investigated. Experimental results regarding to relatively high-quality surfaces machined by grinding, polishing, lapping processes have shown the measurement error is within 10% in the range of $0.1{mu}m~0.8{mu}m R_q.$Therefore, the proposed method is thought to be effectively used when quick measurements is needed with workpieces fixed on the machine.Therefore, the proposed