Testing of robotic total stations for dynamic tracking

Abstract

Robotic Total Stations (RTSs) were first introduced by Geodimeter in 1990. These instruments incorporated servomotors and advanced tracking sensor's which allowed the instrument to track a target. This development meant that with the use of a radio link, the instrument could now be completely controlled via remote by a single operator. Automated machine guidance was the major new application of this advancement in technology. RTS's are now utilised in the construction and extractive industries for the guidance of major earthworks machinery as well as in the agricultural industry for the guidance of machinery such as tractors and harvesters. However, the accuracy and latency of this dynamic application is still not well understood. Therefore, with the application of RTS's now moving into real-time automated machine guidance it has become critical to understand the exact accuracies that these instruments are capable of achieving whilst operating in the dynamic tracking mode. Thus, upon the completion of this project my aim is to have a better understanding of both the dynamic tracking operational accuracies of several instruments, as well as a better understanding of under what conditions an RTS best performs.