Rotary laser positioning for geophysical sensing

• US 8,941,816 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2006
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Science Foundation (Government of the United States of America)
• Original Assignee: National Science Foundation (Government of the United States of America)
• Inventors: Grasmueck, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Hellner, Mark
• Application Number:
  US11/381,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20070258325A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,192 Days
• Field of Search: 367/56, 367/119, 367/129, 367/77, 367/24, 342/459, 356 31- 316, 356/3.12
• US Class Current: 356/3.12
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/003 Seismic data acquisition in general, e.g. survey design G01V1/3808, G01V1/42 take precedence

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to positioning for geophysical sensing and provide a method, system and apparatus for rotary laser positioning in geophysical sensing. In an embodiment of the invention, a geophysical sensing data processing system can be provided to include multiple laser energy sources disposed about a target scene, and a mobile sensor unit. The mobile sensor unit can include at least one laser energy source sensor coupled to a laser positioning system, and one or multiple geophysical sensor communicatively linked to the laser positioning system. In one aspect of the invention, the laser positioning system can be a Rotary Laser Positioning System (RLPS). Complementary positioning sensors further can be provided.

Claims

1. A geophysical sensing data processing system comprising:

a plurality of laser energy sources disposed about a target scene; and

,

a mobile sensor unit comprising a positioning sensor coupled to a laser positioning system, and a geophysical sensor communicatively linked to the laser positioning system, the positioning sensor, laser positioning system and geophysical sensor all residing within the mobile sensor unit,

the laser positioning system comprising multiple rotary laser positioning sensors all couples to a single processing unit programmed to resolve both position coordinates of the mobile sensor unit based upon a receipt of laser energy from the laser energy sources received by the multiple different rotary laser positioning sensors,

the geophysical sensor being configured to visualize a surface and a sub-surface of the target scene.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the laser energy sources comprise each of a rotary laser beam source and an infrared strobe.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a complementary positioning sensor selected from the group consisting of a laser sensor, an infrared sensor, an optical sensor, an inertial sensor, and a global positioning system (GPS) sensor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the geophysical sensor is ground penetrating radar.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile sensor unit further comprises a guidance system coupled to a mobile computing platform, and further coupled to the laser positioning system.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the mobile computing platform is coupled to the geophysical sensor on the mobile sensor unit and comprises program code enabled to fuse and process geophysical and corresponding positioning data to produce surface and sub-surface imagery of the target scene.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a base station wirelessly linked to the mobile sensor unit in addition to a plurality of other mobile sensor units, the base station comprising program code enabled to merge, fuse and process data subsets of sensed geophysical and corresponding positioning data from the mobile sensor unit and the other mobile sensor units to produce surface and sub-surface imagery of the target scene.