Positioning method for a surveying instrument and said surveying instrument

• US 9,958,269 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2014
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hexagon Technology Center GmbH (Hexagon AB)
• Original Assignee: Hexagon Technology Center GmbH (Hexagon AB)
• Inventors: Metzler, Bernhard, Gchter Toya, Stefan Martin Benjamin
• Primary Examiner(s): FULTON, CHRISTOPHER W
• Application Number:
  US14/902,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20160146604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,398 Days
• Field of Search: 33228, 33 1 T, 33 1 CC, 33286, 33290
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/00 Surveying instruments or accessories not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/002 Active optical surveying means optical plumbing G01C15/105
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention relate to a method for determining the position data of a geodesic surveying instrument by comparing of a reference data set extracted from data of an image of the surroundings of the surveying instrument position with position-referenced data sets which consists of data of a corresponding type, and determining the position data using the position reference of the selected position-referenced data set that has a comparatively important level of match with the reference data set.

Claims

1. A method for determining the position data of a geodetic surveying instrument, wherein the method comprises:

recording a panoramic image, a 360°

three-dimensional scan or a range panorama image of the environment of at least one contiguous region of the environment of the surveying instrument position to be determined,

providing a multiplicity of stored position-referenced volumes of data from position-referenced data records,

extracting a reference volume of data consisting of read or derived data of one image of the environment by means of image processing, wherein each position-referenced volume of data and the reference volume of data have data of corresponding type,

collating the reference volume of data with the provided position-referenced volumes of data with identification of matches between reference volume of data and a respective individual position-referenced volume of data,

selecting that position-referenced volume of data that has a comparatively significant degree of match with the reference volume of data,

ascertaining the position data of the surveying instrument position on the basis of position reference of the selected position-referenced volume of data.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the ascertained position data represent a coarse position information item as identified recording location,

the ascertained coarse position data are taken as a basis for retrieving position reference information stored in a database for the recording location in the environment, which position reference information is used for refined determination of the position data, wherein the refined determination on the basis of a plurality of geodetic reference points in the environment (as the position reference information) that, following ascertainment of the position data, are automatically retrieved from a database associated with the ascertained position data or the identified recording location, and

the refined determination of the position data is effected on the basis of the position reference information, wherein the position reference information is geodetic reference points in the environment that are geodetically measured by means of the geodetic surveying instrument, and the deployment is determined therefrom.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the recording of an image of the environment is effected by photographing or laser scanning, wherein environment elements recorded in the process cover the at least one contiguous region of the environment with a prescribed minimum density.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

a position-referenced volume of data is provided by using the whole or a portion of a digital position-referenced data record or from the whole or a portion of produced data of a digital position-referenced data record

of an image of the environment, produced by photographing or laser scanning, that is recorded close to the ground,

of a geographical terrain map or model, or

of an image of the environment produced from data recorded remotely from the ground, which is produced specifically by means of light, laser or radio detection and ranging,

wherein a digital data record is used to produce a plurality of position-referenced volumes of data that are each obtained for a different virtual recording location, close to the ground, for an image of the environment that is produced from the data record,

wherein the virtual recording locations close to the ground, which are at a regular distance from one another, are situated within a particular region of terrain.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

a position-referenced volume of data is position-referenced by virtue of at least one data volume element(s) or the whole of the data volume elements having an explicitly associated absolute position or being able to be explicitly assigned an absolute position on the basis of at least one position reference of the underlying position-referenced data record.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

data of corresponding type are data that describe the whole image of the environment or the digital data record or at least one subregion and/or aspect or property of the respective whole image of the environment or of the respective whole digital record.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data comprises data of captured or computed points or structures, or geometric primitives.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data comprise data of a statistical type, signatures, histograms, specifically color or grayscale value histograms or histograms from surface normals, gradients or functions, brightness gradients or probability functions.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data comprises one more items selected from the list consisting of translation-invariant descriptors, rotation-invariant descriptors, illumination-invariant descriptors, scale-invariant descriptors, geometrical, color-based and/or intensity-based descriptors, statistical descriptors, histogram of oriented gradients, histogram of local binary patterns, and structure tensor.

10. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein a subregion is defined as the surroundings of distinctive structures or points or is ascertained by image resolution by means of a sliding window process.

11. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data comprises relative position data.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the collation takes place by means of classification formation of at least one measure of distance or a correlation function.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the ascertainment of the surveying instrument position is adoption of the absolute position data of a real or computed recording location associated with the selected position-referenced volume of data.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

ascertainment of an, at least coarse, surveying instrument orientation is effected on the basis of referenced orientation data of the selected position-referenced volume of data, by comparison of recording directions of the recorded image of the environment and the selected position-referenced volume of data.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the generation of at least one quality indicator for at least one computation result, is displayed to the user on an electronic display.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

determination of a surveying instrument position advance information item, by means of ascertainment of the mobile radio cell that contains the geodetic surveying instrument, and selection of position-referenced data records on the basis of the surveying instrument position advance information item.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

transfer of the data of the image of the environment following recording, and surveying-instrument-external execution of the further method steps on a smartphone or by cloud services.

18. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

marking of distinguished points and/or objects, which are automatically ascertained from a database associated with the ascertained position, in an image of the environment of the for surveying instrument position.

19. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

automated execution of individual method steps.

20. A geodetic surveying instrument comprising:

a superstructure that is arranged on a base and that can swivel about a swivel axis,

a sighting unit, wherein the sighting unit has at least one emission unit, defining an optical target axis, for emitting a laser beam and a distance measurement functionality for measuring a distance to an object,

an angle measurement functionality for high-precision capture of at least one swivel angle defined by a relative swivel position of the superstructure in relation to the base, and

a control and evaluation unit,

a unit for producing an image of the environment,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is designed such that it can be used to carry out the method as claimed in claim 1.

21. A non-transitory computer program product, which is stored on a machine-readable storage medium, or computer data signal, embodied by an electromagnetic wave, with program code that is suitable for taking a recorded image of the environment of a geodetic surveying instrument and using the method as claimed in claim 1 to determine the absolute position data of the surveying instrument.

22. A method for determining the position data of a geodetic surveying instrument, wherein the method comprises:

recording an image of the environment with an angular range of at least 130°

of at least one contiguous region of the environment of the surveying instrument position to be determined,

providing a multiplicity of stored position-referenced volumes of data from position-referenced data records,

extracting a reference volume of data consisting of read or derived data of one image of the environment by means of image processing, wherein each position-referenced volume of data and the reference volume of data have data of corresponding type,

collating the reference volume of data with the provided position-referenced volumes of data with identification of matches between reference volume of data and a respective individual position-referenced volume of data,

selecting that position-referenced volume of data that has a comparatively significant degree of match with the reference volume of data,

ascertaining the position data of the surveying instrument position on the basis of position reference of the selected position-referenced volume of data.