Patent ID: 8085296

Claim:
A method of measuring an operating position for performing maintenance including inspection and repair through remote operation to a target face in which a general profile of the surface is already known, the method comprising: contacting a movable body capable of being kept at a constant relative distance and relative angle with respect to the target face and having reference points for use in positional measurement on a surface of the movable body; providing a monitor, having a camera and lighting, at any given reference point whose relative position with respect to the target face is already known; accumulating in advance image data to be obtained by photographing the movable body, under an optical environment similar to that around the target face, at any given relative angle or relative distance, between the movable body and the monitor for the positional measurement; obtaining in advance correlating data, based on the image data, for determining a one to one correlation between the relative distance, at any given relative angle or relative distance, between the movable body and the monitor for the positional measurement and the distance and dimensions on the surface of the photographed object in the image; measuring the relative angle between the photographed object and the monitor; photographing the movable body using the camera of the monitor, and calculating the relative distance between the monitor and the movable body by comparing the distance and dimensions between the reference points in the image with the correlating data coincident with the measured relative angle; and calculating the operating position of the movable body for the positional measurement, based on the relative position, relative distance and relative angle of the monitor.