A novel precise guiding method for visual guiding theodolite measurement in volume space

Abstract This article reports a novel precise guiding method for visual guiding theodolite measurement in volume space. The vision guiding automatic theodolite measurement system consists of initial guiding and precise guiding, the latter of which directly determines the final measuring accuracy and measuring efficiency. We put forward a precise guiding method based on the camera optical axis. After being calibrated, the double-theodolite measuring subsystem and vision guiding subsystem are triggered by theoretical model data. Then by using the digital image processing technology, we can obtain the relation between the feature center in the camera view and the image center (the camera optical axis). With this relation and the multiresolution visual imaging and tracking technology, the vision measurement subsystem can be guided to target the feature center precisely. According to the calibration relation, we can obtain the angular deflection of double theodolites and make the double theodolites to intersect at the target point precisely. The method improves the automatic measurement efficiency at no cost of measurement accuracy.