Leica Geosystems Ag

Hexagon Technology Center Gmbh

Beat Aebischer

Knut Siercks

Bernhard Metzler

Bernhard Braunecker

Marcel Rohner

Bernd Walser

Bo Pettersson

Heinz Lippuner

Thomas Jensen

Claudio Iseli

Johan Stigwall

Bernd Reimann

Reto Stutz

Peter Kipfer

Peter Arnold Stegmaier

Tim Mayer

Alexandre Heili

Asif Rana

Peter Champ

Yves Salvadé

Siegfried Wiltsche

Ingo Bednarek

Jürgen Schneider

Christian Betschon

Bernhard Gächter

Katrin Mentl

Bernhard G&auml;chter

Ernst Ramseier

Markus Wenk

Frank Lamping

Raphael Appius

Bernard Braunecker

Georg Orawez

Esther Rutishauser

Ismail Roman Celebi

Markus Sprecher

Patrik Titus Töngi

Kevin Greenwood

Michael Schlenkrich-Erasmus

Roland Burgstaller

Sybille Verena Komposch

Bernhard Gachter

A computer program product and to a method for compensating thermal errors in a mechanical process, the mechanical process in particular provided by a mechanical device such as a coordinate measuring machine, a tooling machine or an articulated robot arm. Thermal errors arise due to thermal disturbances affecting the mechanical process, wherein thermal disturbances may arise from environmental influences affecting the mechanical process or from internally generated changing temperature distributions.

Advanced thermal compensation of mechanical processes

A method for calibrating a triangulation sensor including a light emitting unit for emitting measuring light and a light receiving unit. The light emitting unit is arranged with known position and orientation relative to the light receiving unit and the triangulation sensor which is adapted to provide triangulation-based position measurements. A calibration setup which comprises the triangulation sensor and a calibration target providing a defined calibration pattern, and a calibration measurement is performed with reference to the calibration target by means of the triangulation sensor. An image of the calibration target is captured by means of the light receiving unit, and the captured image is processed with deriving a pattern image position with reference to the inner sensor image coordinate system and deriving a light image position with reference to the inner sensor image coordinate system.

Calibration of a triangulation sensor

Some embodiments of the invention relate to a method for capturing a relative position of at least one first spatial point by means of a portable distance measuring device, the method comprising positioning a known reference object, which has known features which may be captured by optical means, said features being arranged in a pattern designed for a resection, at least one first measuring process, comprising measuring a first distance to the first spatial point, and recording a first reference image linked in time with measuring the first distance, the reference object being imaged in the first reference image, and ascertaining the position and orientation of the distance measuring device relative to the reference object comprising identifying the reference object, recalling stored information about the known features of the identified reference object and identifying positions of known features of the reference object in the first reference image.

Portable distance measuring device and method for capturing relative positions

Some embodiments of the invention relate to a method for measuring spatial points with a laser scanner. The method may include: scanning multiple spatial points on an object; determining coordinates of the respective spatial point, determining a close range about a central spatial point with at least two spatial points whose angle coordinates are in a defined angular space adjacent to those of the central spatial point; aggregating coordinates of the spatial points in the specific close range; and replacing coordinates of the central spatial point by aggregating coordinates of the spatial points in the specific close range. In some embodiments, the laser scanner forms the origin of the coordinates, and the coordinates comprise a distance and at least one angle.

Method for measuring spatial points

According to the invention, the calibration measuring cycle is divided into several, particularly a plurality of partial cycles, with which one or more of the calibration measurements are associated. While maintaining the cycle, the partial cycles are now carried out in one of the positioning pauses such that the calibration measuring cycle is distributed over several, in particular a plurality of, positioning pauses and is integrated into the flow of the industrial process without interfering with the same.

Calibration method for a measuring system

An object is highly precisely moved by an industrial robot to an end position by the following steps, which are repeated until the end position is reached within a specified tolerance: Recording a three-dimensional image by means of a 3-D image recording device. Determining the present position of the object in the spatial coordinate system from the position of the 3-D image recording device the angular orientation of the 3-D image recording device detected by an angle measuring unit, the three-dimensional image, and the knowledge of features on the object. Calculating the position difference between the present position of the object and the end position. Calculating a new target position of the industrial robot while taking into consideration the compensation value from the present position of the industrial robot and a value linked to the position difference. Moving the industrial robot to the new target position.

Method and system for highly precisely positioning at least one object in an end position in space

The invention relates to a method and a system for the high-precision positioning of at least one object in a final location in space. An object () is gripped and held by the industrial robot () within a gripping tolerance. A compensating variable, which corrects the gripping tolerance, is determined for the industrial robot (). The object () is adjusted with high precision into a final location by the following steps, which repeat until reaching the final location at a predetermined tolerance: recording of image recordings by recording units (); determining the current location of the object () in the spatial coordinate system from the positions (P, P) of the recording units (), the angular orientations of cameras () of the recording units () which are detected by angle measuring units (), the image recordings, and the knowledge of features () on the object (); calculating the location difference between the current location of the object () and the final location; calculating a new target position of the industrial robot () in consideration of the compensating variable from the current position of the industrial robot () and a variable which is linked to the location difference; adjusting the industrial robot () into the new target position.

Method and system for the high-precision positioning of at least one object in a final location in space

The invention relates to a method for determining at least one influencing variable acting on the eccentricity in a goniometer, using a detector arrangement consisting of four optical detector elements, and a rotational body comprising a plurality of pattern elements arranged around a pattern center, the rotational body being rotatably arranged about an axis. According to said method, at least some of the pattern elements are reproduced on the detector arrangement, the positions of the pattern elements reproduced on the detector arrangement are resolved, and the eccentricity of the pattern center in relation to a detector center of the detector arrangement is determined. A plurality of such eccentricity measurements for different rotational positions enables different influencing variables acting on the current eccentricity to be separated, especially by forming units.

Method for determining an influencing variable acting on the eccentricity in a goniometer

The invention relates to a positioning method for determining the position and orientation of a mobile unit having a receiver ('), whereby the receiver (&#x2032;) is detected by a scanner (&#x2032;), said scanner (&#x2032;) determining at least the distance and a direction in relation to the receiver (&#x2032;). The radiation emitted by the sensor is detected by the receiver (&#x2032;) and the direction of incidence of radiation and the direction of incidence of radiation in relation to an axis of reception are derived while an offset of the incident radiation in relation to the axis of reception (EA) is determined. Position and orientation of the unit are derived from at least the distance, the direction in relation to the receiver (&#x2032;), the offset and the direction of incidence as the position information and the unit is optionally controlled via the optical connection (OV).

Method and system for determining position and orientation of an object

An optoelectric angle-measuring device has a code carrier having a position code which can be detected optically as well as a scanning device in the form of a light-sensitive row or area for detecting the position code and generating a position-dependent scanning signal. The scanning device which is in the form of a scanning film, in particular, surrounds the code carrier or the code carrier essentially completely surrounds the scanning device along a circumference. This provides an extremely accurate angle-measuring device by virtue of the fact that a large part of the position code, in particular even the entire position code, can be detected.

Optoelectric angle-measuring device

A distance measuring method for detecting the spatial dimension of at least one target by at least one emission of a multiplicity of light pulses, in particular laser light, towards the target, detecting the light pulse scattered back by the target by means of a multiplicity of distance measuring pixels and eliminating the distance to the target for each pixel, wherein each light pulse can be detected within a measuring interval Ti from at least two partial intervals tij and the detection of at least one repetition constitutes a detection step performed in at least two stages wherein the measuring interval T&#x2dc; is shortened from stage to stage.

Distance measuring method and distance measuring element for detecting the spatial dimension of a target

The aim of the invention is to determine the actual position and/or actual orientation of a measuring appliance (). To this end, at least two reference points (') lying in a spatial segment (&#x2032;) scanned by a laser beam are detected and measured in terms of the distance thereinbetween and the inclination angle thereof. The actual position of the measuring appliance () can be deduced from the known positions of said reference points (&#x2032;) arranged in a detectable manner and the associated distances and inclination angle thereof. The detection, monitoring and measuring of the reference points is carried out by the measuring appliance () in an automated manner, the measuring appliance () and specifically embodied elements associated with the reference points (&#x2032;) forming a local positioning and/or orientation measuring system. The inventive method and corresponding devices enable measurements to be carried out in a problem-free and automated manner, even in areas that cannot be accessed by other measuring systems.

Method and system for determining the spatial position of a hand-held measuring appliance

The invention relates to an electro-optical distance measuring method wherein frequency-modulated optical radiation is emitted onto at least one target to be measured. Once the radiation back-scattered to the target is received, the chirp of radiation is modeled by means of a phase function &#x3a6;(t) having parameters c, thereby making description of the deviation of the chirp from the linear profile possible. The parameters used for description are at least partially determined from measurements or are coestimated during numerical signal processing.

Electro-optical method for measuring distance and detecting a non-ideal chirp profile

For determining the load of an excavator bucket, or optionally of another holding region, a measurement step and an evaluation step are carried out. In the measurement step, the position of a load surface is determined by a noncontact distance-measuring device and, in the evaluation step, a load volume is determined from the position of the load surface and the position and shape of the excavator bucket or of the holding region. For determining the position of the load surface, at least one two-dimensional matrix with distance values is created by means of a distance-measuring camera. For determining the position of the excavator bucket, the distances to at least three points of the excavator bucket, in particular to points on the upper bucket edge, optionally to marked points are determined using the distance-measuring apparatus for determining the surface.

Method and apparatus for determining the loading of a bucket

The invention relates to a method for determining the spatial and rotational positions of an object. With the assistance of an imaging optical system, the object is mapped and detected on a high-sensitivity resolution optoelectronic detector. The location parameter of the object, such as the position vector ({overscore (r)} ), the direction vector ({overscore (&ngr;)}) of the object axis, and the angle (&kgr;) of rotation of the object around the object axis is determined from the planar position of the mapped object structures in the coordinate system (X , Y ) of the detector by means of geometric optical relationships and mathematical evaluation methods. With this, the spatial position of the object is determined in a quick and contactless manner.

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Heerbrugg, Switzerland

Beat Aebischer