Patent ID: 8259311

Claim:
A method for determining attitude, comprising: emitting a first laser beam by a laser source positioned in a reference system to a detector and simultaneous detection of the first laser beam by the detector, with the result that an emission direction of the laser source and an incidence direction to the detector are defined; and determining the attitude of the detector relative to the laser source and the reference system, wherein: the detector has a segmented detection region comprising a multiplicity of discrete partial detection regions which in each case have a defined partial detection direction and of which at least two partial detection directions differ; on detection of the first laser beam, an impingement point of the first laser beam on the detector is determined by means of at least one partial detection region and the incidence direction of the first laser beam to the detector is derived from the coordinated at least one partial detection direction; and as the attitude of the detector, at least the azimuthal alignment thereof is determined from the emission direction and the incidence direction.