Surveying system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10488198-B2
Application number	US-201916396528-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2019
Priority date	May 5, 2014
Publication date	Nov 26, 2019
Grant date	Nov 26, 2019

Abstract

A system is disclosed that comprises a camera module and a control and evaluation unit. The camera module is designed to be attached to the surveying pole and comprises at least one camera for capturing images. The control and evaluation unit has stored a program with program code so as to control and execute a functionality in which a series of images of the surrounding is captured with the at least one camera; a SLAM-evaluation with a defined algorithm using the series of images is performed, wherein a reference point field is built up and poses for the captured images are determined; and, based on the determined poses, a point cloud comprising 3D-positions of points of the surrounding can be computed by forward intersection using the series of images, particularly by using dense matching algorithm.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A surveying subsystem comprising a camera module and a control and evaluation unit, wherein the surveying subsystem is adapted to be used as part of a surveying system that is adapted to determine positions of a position measuring resource, particularly wherein the surveying system further comprising a hand-carried surveying pole and the position measuring resource being mounted on the hand-carried surveying pole:
the camera module being designed to be attached to the surveying pole and comprising at least one camera for capturing images,
the control and evaluation unit having stored a program with program code so as to control and execute a spatial representation generation functionality in which—when moving along a path through a surrounding—
a first series of images of the surrounding is captured with the at least one camera, the first series comprising an amount of images captured with different poses of the at least one camera, the poses representing respective positions and orientations of the at least one camera,
an initial set of image points is identified based on the first series of images, the initial image points representing reference points of a reference point field, wherein each reference point appears in at least two images of the series of images,
the poses for the images are determined based on resection using the initial image points, wherein,
a second series of images of the surrounding is captured with the at least one camera,
reference points of the reference point field appearing in at least one of the images of the second series of images are identified,
a further set of image points is identified in the images of the second series of images corresponding to the identified reference points of the second series of images and
the poses for the images of the second series of images are determined based on resection using the initial set and the further set of image points.

2. The subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein,
the camera module comprising at least two cameras arranged relative to each other so that panoramic images with a field of view of 360° in azimuthal direction are capturable.

3. The subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein,
the control and evaluation unit is configured so that the spatial representation generation functionality is controlled and executed in such a way, that the reference point field forms a sparse point cloud that serves for determination of the poses of the at least one camera and thus expressly for localisation purposes and,
based on the determined poses, a point cloud—being a dense point cloud—comprising 3D-positions of points of the surrounding is computed by forward intersection using the images of the first and second series of images.

4. The subsystem according to claim 3 , wherein,
the control and evaluation unit is configured so that the spatial representation generation functionality is controlled and executed in such a way, that:
determined positions of the position measuring resource for points that have been adopted on the path are received by the control and evaluation unit from the surveying system, and
the dense point cloud is scaled, and particularly geo-referenced, with help of the received determined positions.

5. The subsystem according to claim 3 , wherein,
the control and evaluation unit is configured so that the spatial representation generation functionality is controlled and executed in such a way, that a graphical reproduction is generated for the dense point cloud, the graphical reproduction being displayable by display means of the surveying system.

6. The subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein,
the position measuring resource comprises a GNSS-antenna or a retro-reflector.

7. The subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein,
orientations of the at least one camera, particularly in all three rotational degrees of freedom, in particular position and orientation in six degrees of freedom, are derived based on one or more of the determined poses and further based on:
data from an inertial measuring unit of the camera module, and/or
a multitude of determined positions of the position measuring resource, particular a travelling history for the moved path.

8. The subsystem according to claim 1 , wherein,
the camera module comprises at least four cameras arranged relative to each other so that panoramic images with a field of view of 360° in azimuthal direction are capturable.

9. The subsystem according to claim 7 , wherein,
the at least four cameras are fixedly arranged in a common housing of the camera module, in particular wherein also an inertial measuring unit is fixedly integrated into the common housing of the camera module.

10. A surveying system comprising
a hand-carried surveying pole,
a position measuring resource being mounted on the surveying pole, wherein positions of the position measuring resource are determinable by the surveying system, and
a surveying subsystem according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Hexagon Technology Ct Gmbh

Inventors

• Siercks Knut
• Metzler Bernhard
• Van Der Zwan Elmar Vincent
• Fidler Thomas
• Parys Roman
• Velizhev Alexander
• Scheja Jochen

Classifications

• H04N23/635

  Region indicators; Field of view indicators · CPC title

• H04N23/63

  by using electronic viewfinders · CPC title

• H04N23/698

  for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture · CPC title

• H04N23/51

  Housings · CPC title

• H04N23/57

  Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices · CPC title