Coordinate measuring and/or stake out device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11333497-B2
Application number	US-202016864775-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 1, 2020
Priority date	May 2, 2019
Publication date	May 17, 2022
Grant date	May 17, 2022

Abstract

A coordinate measuring and/or stake out device can be designed for being hand-held (one-handed), free carriage and movement by a user. A position giving means is for determination of an actual translational position of the device using an external position reference and an orientation giving means for determination of an actual rotational position of the device, such that the actual position of the device with respect to all six degrees of freedom of the device can be determined. A radiation source is for generation of a radiation beam as measuring and/or marking beam for measuring and/or visually marking of an object point. A beam steerer is for automatic steering of an alignment of the beam, whereby the beam which differ in the manner of automatic steering the beam alignment.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hand-holdable coordinate measuring device and/or stake out device configured to be hand-held with at least one hand for free carriage and movement by a user, the device comprising:
position giving means for determination of an actual translational position of the device using an external position reference and orientation giving means for determination of an actual rotational position of the device such that the actual position of the device with respect to all six degrees of freedom of the device can be determined,
a radiation source for generation of a radiation beam as a measuring and/or marking beam for measuring and/or visually marking of an object point,
a beam steerer for automatic steering of an alignment of the radiation beam,
wherein the beam steerer comprises at least two beam steering operating modes,
which differ in the manner of automatic steering the beam alignment,
wherein the beam steerer is designed to switch automatically between the two operating modes in dependence on sensor data, wherein:
the sensor data is provided by a sensor of the device; and/or
the beam steerer is designed to adapt the automatically switching, to a respective user.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the beam steerer is designed to switch automatically between the first and the second stabilization mode in dependence on a sensed movement of the device.

3. The device according to claim 2 , wherein switching is executed if the shift tendency is above or below a defined threshold and/or if a shift pattern is sensed.

4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein one of the operating modes is an auto-align mode designed to automatically steer the radiation beam to an object point of interest, wherein:
the object point of interest is automatically detected by the device based on data of a device's sensor; and/or
the radiation beam is successively aligned such that a sequence of object points of interest is automatically measured and/or marked.

5. The device according to claim 1 , wherein one of the operating modes is a multi-point mode designed to steer the radiation beam continuously in a direction such that a multitude of neighbored object points is measured and/or marked.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein one of the operating modes is a graphic projection mode designed to automatically steer the radiation beam in such a way that a visual graphic is projected by the radiation beam onto an object's surface.

7. The device according to claim 6 , wherein the visual graphic is a user navigation information indicating:
a direction and/or distance to an object point to be measured and/or marked;
a geographic direction; or
a direction and/or distance to the external position reference.

8. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the beam steerer comprises:
an active gimbal, wherein the gimbal is carrying or encasing the radiation source, and/or
a micro scanning mirror, a scanning galvo mirror and/or an array of movable mirrors, and/or
at least one rotatable wedge prism.

9. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the orientation giving means is embodied as an Inertial Measurement Unit and/or tilt and heading sensors.

10. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the position giving means is embodied as a retroreflector or a GNSS-module.

11. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the radiation source is part of an Electronic Distance Meter.

12. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the device comprises:
a separate user button which is conceived and reserved for manually switching between the two operating modes, and/or
a display unit designed for user beam steering guidance and/or a data transmitter designed for transfer of user beam steering guidance data to an external display, and/or
is body-wearable.

13. The device according to claim 1 , wherein one of the operating modes is a multi-point mode designed to steer the radiation beam continuously in a direction such that a multitude of neighbored object points is measured and/or marked in form of a dense point line or dense point area.

14. A surveying system comprising:
a surveying instrument, and
a coordinate measuring and/or stake out device according to claim 1 .

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the system comprises a computer with an state estimator algorithm designed for computation of the actual position of the device.

16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein a distance measured with the radiation beam is fed into the state estimator for the position computation.

17. The surveying system comprising:
a surveying instrument selected from a total station and/or a GNSS survey pole, and
a coordinate measuring and/or stake out device according to claim 1 .

18. A hand-holdable coordinate measuring device and/or stake out device configured to be hand-held with at least one hand for free carriage and movement by a user, the device comprising:
position giving means for determination of an actual translational position of the device using an external position reference and orientation giving means for determination of an actual rotational position of the device such that the actual position of the device with respect to all six degrees of freedom of the device can be determined,
a radiation source for generation of a radiation beam as a measuring and/or marking beam for measuring and/or visually marking of an object point,
a beam steerer for automatic steering of an alignment of the radiation beam,
wherein the beam steerer comprises at least two beam steering operating modes,
which differ in the manner of automatic steering the beam alignment,

wherein the at least two operating modes comprise a first and a second stabilization mode for stabilization of the beam alignment in order to compensate unintentional movements of the device, wherein:
in the first stabilization mode the beam alignment is strictly stabilized; and
in the second stabilization mode the beam alignment is semi-stabilized such that the radiation beam follows a shift tendency of the device.

19. A hand-holdable coordinate measuring device and/or stake out device configured to be hand-held with at least one hand for free carriage and movement by a user, the device comprising:
position giving means for determination of an actual translational position of the device using an external position reference and orientation giving means for determination of an actual rotational position of the device such that the actual position of the device with respect to all six degrees of freedom of the device can be determined,
a radiation source for generation of a radiation beam as a measuring and/or marking beam for measuring and/or visually marking of an object point,
a beam steerer for automatic steering of an alignment of the radiation beam,
wherein the beam steerer comprises at least two beam steering operating modes, which differ in the manner of automatic steering the beam alignment,
wherein the at least two operating modes comprise a first and a second beam lock mode, wherein
in the first lock mode the beam alignment relative to the device is locked; and
in the second lock mode the radiation beam is locked onto an object point.

Assignees

• Leica Geosystems Ag

Inventors

• Eisenreich Stefan
• Rüst Philipp Lukas
• Carrera Matteo
• Celebi Ismail Roman
• Töngi Patrik Titus
• Petkov Stefan
• MüLLER JOSEF
• Geser Markus
• Maar Hannes

Classifications

• G01C15/002

  Active optical surveying means (optical plumbing G01C15/105) · CPC title

• G01C15/06 Primary

  Surveyors' staffs; Movable markers · CPC title

• G01C15/004

  Reference lines, planes or sectors · CPC title

• G01S19/14

  specially adapted for specific applications · CPC title

• G01C15/00 Primary

  Surveying instruments or accessories not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C13/00 · CPC title