Patent ID: 6310644
Filing Date: 2001-10-30
Classification: G01B,G01C

Abstract:
A three-dimensional coordinate measuring system, comprising:a) first and second towers;b) first and second camera assemblies mounted on said first and second towers, respectively;c) a first pair of reference targets mounted to said first tower such that said reference targets of said first pair are a known distance apart, and a second pair of reference targets mounted to said second tower such that said reference targets of said second pair are a known distance apart;d) a tilt sensor mounted on each of said first and second towers operative to measure the angle of each of said first and second towers with vertical; ande) a host computer coupled to each of said camera assemblies and to said tilt sensors operative to receive automatically measurements from selected targets, from each pair of said reference targets and a tower angle to vertical measurements from each of said tilt sensors, said host computer being programmed to perform photogrammetric algorithms so as to compute the coordinates of unknown points.