REMOTE SURVEY SYSTEM

• US 20180172840A1
• Filed: 12/15/2016
• Published: 06/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Novatel Incorporated (Hexagon AB)
• Original Assignee: Novatel Incorporated (Hexagon AB)
• Inventors: Fenton, Patrick C., Schleppe, John B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,458,792 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/02 Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/06 by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/002 Active optical surveying means optical plumbing G01C15/105
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/485 whereby the further system is an optical system or imaging system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves

Abstract

A remote survey system uses a GNSS receiver, an on-board camera and a vision subsystem to provide real time three-dimensional (3D) global position information for a survey point that is in a location in which access to line-of-sight GNSS satellites signals is restricted. The camera takes images of the restricted access survey point location from unrestricted access locations and the GNSS receiver determines associated global positions. The vision system tracks an object of interest and at least three secondary objects at the restricted access survey point location in a plurality of the images and determines the positions of the objects relative to the camera and the orientations of the camera for the respective images. Using the relative positions, the camera orientations and the global positions of the camera, the vision subsystem calculates the global position of the restricted access survey point.

Claims

1. A method of operating a remote survey system including

determining a route to conduct a survey over a plurality of survey points for a remote survey system with a GNSS receiver, an on-board camera with known characteristics and a vision subsystem;

for a given survey point location on the route determining if the GNSS receiver will have sufficient access to GNSS satellite signals at the location to calculate a global position of the survey point within system accuracy requirements;

if the access to the GNSS signals will be sufficient at the given survey point location directing the remote survey system to travel to the given survey point location and determine the global position of the survey point based on received GNSS satellite signals;

if the access to the GNSS signals will not be sufficient at the given survey point location,

bypassing the given survey point location and directing the remote survey system along the route toward other survey point locations and while traveling directing the camera to take images of the given survey point location from at least three spatially diverse locations that have sufficient access to GNSS satellite signals and from which the camera has the given survey point location in a field of view,

calculating the global position of the camera and time tagging the position,

identifying the given survey point location as an object of interest in at least one of the images and tracking the object of interest and at least three identifiable secondary objects in a plurality of the images taken from the at least three different locations,

calculating the position of the object of interest and the secondary objects relative to the camera in the selected plurality of images,

calculating the orientations of the camera for the respective selected plurality of images, and

calculating a global position of the survey point location based on the relative positions, the calculated orientations of the camera and the global positions of the camera when the respective selected images were taken.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the other locations are locations of survey points on the route.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the other locations are on the route between the survey points.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary objects are spatially diverse with respect to the given survey point.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the remote survey system is directed to stop taking images of the given survey point location once a global position within a required tolerance is calculated for the survey point using the images.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the images contain more than one object of interest and the global positions of more than one survey point are determined from the images.

7. A remote survey system including

a survey processing subsystem configured to process and store position information for a plurality of survey points;

an on-board camera with known characteristics, the camera taking images of a given restricted access survey point location;

a GNSS antenna and GNSS receiver that determines global position using GNSS satellite signals received by the antenna;

a vision subsystem configured to determine a global position for the survey point at the given restricted access survey point location using the images taken by the camera and associated global positions determined by the GNSS receiver, the vision subsystem configured to

track an object of interest and at least three secondary objects at the given survey point location in a plurality of the images taken from the at least three spatially diverse locations,

calculate the orientations of the camera for the respective selected plurality of images,

calculate a position of the object of interest and the secondary objects relative to the camera in each of a plurality of images, and

calculate a global position of the given survey point based on the calculated relative positions of the objects, the calculated orientations of the camera and global positions of the camera when the images were taken as determined from the associated global positions.

the survey processing subsystem coordinating the global positons determined by the vision subsystem with the associated survey points at the restricted access survey point locations.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein

the system time tags the images taken by the camera and the associated global positions determined by the GNSS receiver, and

the system determines the global position of the camera for each of the images based on a known offset between the optical center of the camera and the phase center of the GNSS antenna.

9. The system of claim 7 further including

a display, and

the vision subsystem being further configured to display an image on the display and determine an object of interest in the image based on input from an operator.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein

the display includes a touch screen, and

the vision subsystem is configured to identify the objects of interest based on a touch of the screen.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the vision subsystem is configured to identify multiple objects based on multiple touches of the screen.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the vision subsystem tracks objects associated with multiple restricted access survey point locations in a given image.

13. The system of claim 7 wherein the survey processing subsystem further coordinates global positions determined by the GNSS receiver with survey points at unrestricted access survey point locations.

14. The system of claim 7 wherein

the camera takes images of a given unrestricted access survey point location;

the vision subsystem is further configured to determine a global position for a survey point at the given unrestricted access survey point location using a plurality of the images that include the unrestricted access survey point location taken from the at least three spatially diverse locations and associated global positions determined by the GNSS receiver, and

the survey processing subsystem further coordinates global positions determined by the vision subsystem with survey point at the unrestricted access survey point location.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein

the camera takes images of locations of points of interest at the survey site,

the vision subsystem is further configured to determine a global position for a point of interest using the images taken by the camera and associated global positions determined by the GNSS receiver, and

the survey processing subsystem further coordinates global positions determined by the vision subsystem for the points of interest at the point of interest locations.

16. A method of operating a remote survey system including

determining a route to conduct a survey over a plurality of survey points for a remote survey system with a GNSS receiver, an on-board camera with known characteristics and a vision subsystem;

directing the remote survey system along the route and for a given survey point location directing the camera to take images of the given survey point location from at least three spatially diverse locations that have sufficient access to GNSS satellite signals and from which the camera has the given survey point location in a field of view,

calculating the global position of the camera using received GNSS satellite signals and time tagging the position,

identifying the given survey point location as an object of interest in at least one of the images and tracking the object of interest and at least three identifiable secondary objects in a plurality of the images taken from the at least three different locations,

calculating the position of the object of interest and the secondary objects relative to the camera in the selected plurality of images,

calculating the orientations of the camera for the respective selected plurality of images,

calculating a global position of the survey point location based on the relative positions, the calculated orientations of the camera and the global positions of the camera when the respective selected images were taken.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the secondary objects are spatially diverse with respect to the given survey point.

18. The method of claim 16 including directing the camera to stop taking images of the given survey point location once a global position within a required tolerance is calculated for the survey point using the images.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the images contain more than one object of interest and the images are used to determine global positions of more than one survey point.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein

the camera is directed to take images of locations of selected points of interest at the survey site,

the vision subsystem determines a global position for a point of interest using the images taken by the camera and associated global positions determined by the GNSS receiver, and

the survey processing subsystem further coordinates global positions determined by the vision subsystem for the points of interest at the point of interest locations.