Measuring system

• US 9,773,420 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2015
• Issued: 09/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon
• Inventors: Ohtomo, Fumio, Kumagai, Kaoru, Osaragi, Kazuki, Otani, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwari, Maceeh
• Application Number:
  US14/922,945
• Publication Number:
  US 20160049081A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 701 2
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/002 Active optical surveying means optical plumbing G01C15/105
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0094 involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0073 Surveillance aids scene image recognition G06V20/00

Abstract

The invention provides a measuring system comprising a remotely controllable flying vehicle system with a GPS device and a measuring device installed thereon, a position measuring device installed at an arbitrary position and able to measure distance and angle and to track, a ground base station for controlling a flight of a flying vehicle, a remote controller able to give and take data to and from the ground base station and able to perform wireless communication to and from the flying vehicle system, and a control unit provided on the flying vehicle system or the ground base station, and either one of the control units are configured to obtain an absolute coordinate or GPS coordinate of the installation point of the position measuring device based on the GPS coordinates of the two points and based on distance measurement results and on angle measurement results by the position measuring device.

Claims

1. A measuring system, comprising a remotely controllable flying vehicle system with a GPS device and a measuring device installed thereon, a position measuring device installed at an arbitrary position and for measuring distance and angle and for tracking, a ground base station for controlling a flight of said flying vehicle system, a remote controller able to give and take data to and from said ground base station and able to perform wireless communication to and from said flying vehicle system, and control units provided on said flying vehicle system and said ground base station, wherein said flying vehicle system has a retro-reflector as an object to be measured and said position measuring device is constructed so as to track said retro-reflector and perform distance measurement and angle measurement, wherein said flying vehicle system obtains GPS coordinates by said GPS device, said position measuring device measures positions of said flying vehicle system from an installation point, wherein either one of said control units selects either a distance measurement result or an angle measurement result of said GPS coordinates and said position measuring device based on priority determined in advance and controls the flight of said flying vehicle system based on the selected result, wherein in a case where measurement results can be obtained from both of said GPS device and said position measuring device, the priority determined in advance is in an order of measurement accuracy, and wherein said measuring device is a camera, and said control unit performs photogrammetry on an object to be measured based on an image of the object to be measured acquired by said camera at least at two points during flight, and based on absolute coordinates or GPS coordinates of said two points obtained by converting measurement results of said position measuring device.

2. A measuring system, comprising a remotely controllable flying vehicle system with a GPS device and a measuring device installed thereon, a position measuring device installed at an arbitrary position and for measuring distance and angle and for tracking, a ground base station for controlling a flight of said flying vehicle system, a remote controller able to give and take data to and from said ground base station and able to perform wireless communication to and from said flying vehicle system, and control units provided on said flying vehicle system and said ground base station, wherein said flying vehicle system has a retro-reflector as an object to be measured and said position measuring device is constructed so as to track said retro-reflector and perform distance measurement and angle measurement, wherein said flying vehicle system obtains GPS coordinates by said GPS device, said position measuring device measures positions of said flying vehicle system from an installation point, wherein either one of said control units selects either a distance measurement result or an angle measurement result of said GPS coordinates and said position measuring device based on priority determined in advance and controls the flight of said flying vehicle system based on the selected result, wherein in a case where measurement results can be obtained from both of said GPS device and said position measuring device, the priority determined in advance is in an order of measurement accuracy, and, wherein said measuring device is a shape measuring device for measuring a shape of an object to be measured, and said control unit obtains coordinates of the shape of said object to be measured based on a shape of an object to be measured obtained by said shape measuring device at a measuring position and based on absolute coordinates of said measuring position obtained by converting measurement results of said position measuring device or on GPS coordinates obtained by said GPS device.

3. A measuring system, comprising a remotely controllable flying vehicle system with a GPS device and a measuring device installed thereon, a position measuring device installed at an arbitrary position and for measuring distance and angle and for tracking, a ground base station for controlling a flight of said flying vehicle system, a remote controller able to give and take data to and from said ground base station and able to perform wireless communication to and from said flying vehicle system, and control units provided on said flying vehicle system and said ground base station, wherein said flying vehicle system has a retro-reflector as an object to be measured and said position measuring device is constructed so as to track said retro-reflector and perform distance measurement and angle measurement, wherein said flying vehicle system obtains GPS coordinates by said GPS device, said position measuring device measures positions of said flying vehicle system from an installation point, wherein either one of said control units selects either a distance measurement result or an angle measurement result of said GPS coordinates and said position measuring device based on priority determined in advance and controls the flight of said flying vehicle system based on the selected result, wherein in a case where measurement results can be obtained from both of said GPS device and said position measuring device, the priority determined in advance is in an order of measurement accuracy, and, wherein said measuring device of said flying vehicle system determines a dead angle range of said position measuring device, said position measuring device measures a range where it is impossible to fly of said flying vehicle system or a range where it is impossible to perform positional measurement by said GPS device, said control unit converts the measurement results of said position measuring device to GPS coordinates or absolute coordinates and integrates the results measured by said measuring device of said flying vehicle system and the result of measurement by said position measuring device.