Integrated Surveying Adjustment Using Virtual Observations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional surveying methods often ignore significant amounts of data from point clouds and images, limiting the accuracy of adjustments, as they primarily focus on total station data, and face computational challenges with Earth's curvature and light refraction corrections.
Innovation Solution
A method that integrates total station, image, and point cloud data through a central server using a combined-data type adjustment, performing bundle adjustments and registration to generate virtual observations, and applying proper weighting for a single network adjustment, accounting for Earth curvature effects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional surveying methods focus only on total station data, then the adjustment process is simpler, but the accuracy is limited due to ignoring point cloud and image data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple data sources (total station observations, point cloud data, and image data) into a single integrated adjustment process. The system merges these different observation types by establishing corresponding relationships between them, allowing simultaneous utilization of all data to improve positional accuracy while resolving the contradiction between using more data and increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary coordinate system and transformation models as mediators between different data sources. These intermediaries enable the integration of point cloud and image data with total station observations by providing a common reference framework, thus allowing accurate integration without excessive complexity.
2Measurement precision
If all data types are integrated into one adjustment, then accuracy is maximized, but computational expense increases due to Earth curvature and light refraction corrections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary corrections for Earth curvature and light refraction to the observation data before performing the main adjustment calculation. By pre-processing the data to account for these physical effects, the system reduces the computational burden during the actual adjustment while maintaining high accuracy, thus resolving the contradiction between accuracy and computational expense.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the adjustment process into distinct stages: preliminary correction of observations for physical effects, establishment of corresponding relationships between data types, and final integrated adjustment. This segmentation allows complex computations to be distributed and optimized, reducing overall computational expense while maintaining accuracy.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method to integrate all observations, e.g., surveying data in the form of total station data, images, and point clouds) from a surveying instrument that functions as a total station, a camera(s), and a scanner. The method provides an overall adjustment to maximize the accuracy of the adjustment by using all three types of available surveying data, and the method may be labeled an overall adjustment or integrated network adjustment to provide accurate station or instrument position data for a geodatabase for a surveyed site. The overall adjustment method allows all three types of surveying data to influence the results of the adjustment, and this achieved by generating a small number of virtual observations from the image and scan data that are of a form that allows them to be combined with or considered concurrently with the real observations from the total station as part of a single network adjustment.