IP Library Granted Patent US 11,740,086
Granted Patent B2
US 11,740,086 · App. 17/857,758 · Granted Aug 29, 2023

Method for ascertaining the suitability of a position for a deployment for surveying

Inventors: Bernhard Metzler (Dornbirn, AT); Jochen Scheja (Hohenems, AT)
Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
G01C15/002G01C11/08G01C11/28G06F18/22G06T7/521G06T7/70G06T7/80G06V10/462G06V20/10H04N13/271H04N23/698G06T2207/10028G06V10/16
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,740,086
App. No.
17/857,758
Granted
Aug 29, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

One aspect of the invention relates to a fully automatic method for calculating the current, geo-referenced position and alignment of a terrestrial scan-surveying device in situ on the basis of a current panoramic image recorded by the surveying device and at least one stored, geo-referenced 3D scan panoramic image.

Claims (43)

1. A method for determining a suitable setup location of a terrestrial optoelectronic coordinate measuring device within measurement surroundings, wherein the coordinate measuring device is embodied for a measuring beam-based determination of object coordinates, the method comprising:

surveying a measurement region from a first setup location;

during a setup location change, moving the coordinate measuring device away from the first setup location;

during the setup location change, automatically optically capturing a surrounding measurement;

based on the captured surrounding measurement, automatically determining at least one task region as a region of the measurement surroundings to be surveyed;

based on the captured surrounding measurement, automatically determining at least one visual range as a region of the measurement surroundings surveyable from a position of the coordinate measuring device adopted within the scope of the movement; and

checking the position of the coordinate measuring device for a suitability based on an automatic combined analysis of the measurement region, the task region, and the visual range.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical capture of measurement surrounding is implemented continuously.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical capture of measurement surrounding is implemented by measuring beam-based by means of profiling, coarse scanning, or photographically by means of a panoramic image recording, stereo-photogrammetry, a depth image recording, a range image camera or an overview camera of the coordinate measuring device.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the comparative analysis contains checking for overlaps of or gaps in, the measurement region, task region, or visual range.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the presence of gaps or overlaps is ascertained on the basis of point correspondences between the regions or ranges.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein a user warning is output within the scope of the method as soon as the position is determined as being unsuitable for a setup location.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein within the scope of the method and on the basis of a result of the check,

a suitable, unsuitable location, or location zone for surveying a further measurement region, or

existing or potential coverage gaps in the task region,

are established and provided as user output.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining a suitable position for an optimal setup location is further implemented on the basis of at least one specified optimization criterion.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the optimization criterion relates to:

gap-free joining of a further measurement region to the first measurement region with a defined overlap with said first measurement region, or

surveying the task region with:

as few setup locations as possible,

as little time expenditure as possible,

the shortest possible path between the setup locations, or

the greatest possible geometric accuracy of the setup locations with respect to one another.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the optimization criterion relates to:

an angle of incidence of the measuring beam on object surfaces, or

a resolution of the coordinate measurement.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

during the optical capture of measurement surroundings, there is identification of objects, or

during the determination of the task region, filtering of objects or regions of the surroundings that should not be surveyed is performed.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the movement and the surveying of a further measurement region from a position determined as suitable for a further setup location are implemented automatically should an independently mobile coordinate measuring device be present.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical capture of measurement surroundings is implemented using:

simultaneous localization and mapping, LIDAR-simultaneous localization and mapping, structure from motion or dense matching algorithms, or

additionally captured data from at least one position, direction, or acceleration sensor of the coordinate measuring device.

14. A computer program product having program code stored on a machine-readable medium configured for controlling the method according to claim 1 .

15. A terrestrial optoelectronic coordinate measuring device embodied for measuring beam-based determination of object coordinates, wherein the coordinate measuring device comprises:

one or more optical units embodied to capture measurement surroundings, and

a setup location checking functionality, wherein the following is implemented automatically when carrying out the setup location checking functionality:

providing a measurement region as an already surveyed region of the measurement surroundings,

optically capturing measurement surroundings by means of the one or more optical units within the scope of changing the setup location of the coordinate measuring device within the measurement surroundings,

based on the captured measurement surrounding, at least one task region is automatically determined as a region of the measurement surroundings to be surveyed,

based on the captured measurement surrounding, at least one visual range is automatically determined as a region of the measurement surroundings surveyable from a position of the coordinate measuring device adopted within the scope of the movement,

based on an automatic combined analysis of the measurement region, the task region, and the visual range, the position is checked for a suitability thereof for a setup location.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 4, 2025
From: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
To: HEXAGON INNOVATION HUB GMBH
Reel/Frame 073833/0471 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 7, 2022
From: METZLER, BERNHARD; SCHEJA, JOCHEN
To: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
Reel/Frame 060456/0209 →
Priority Claims (2)
EP 19175241 · May 17, 2019 · regional
EP 19185324 · Jul 9, 2019 · regional
Continuity (2)
Division 16876041 · May 16, 2020
Related Publication 20220333925A1 · Oct 20, 2022