Leica Geosystems Ag

Hexagon Technology Center Gmbh

Marcel Rohner

Knut Siercks

Jürg Hinderling

Thomas Jensen

Reto Stutz

Beat Aebischer

Lukas Baumann

Ingo Bednarek

Bernhard Braunecker

Rainer Wohlgenannt

Juerg Hinderling

Robert Fritsch

Yves Salvadé

Yves Salvade

Sébastien Le Floch

Claudio Iseli

Frank Przygodda

Peter Kipfer

Simon Bestler

Tim Mayer

Markus Sprecher

Michael Zapp

Michael Reiterer

Alberto Tarizzo

Roman Koller

Sebastien Le Floch

Yves SalvadÉ

A Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) system comprising a CMM, a rotary table, and a rotation arrangement, wherein the CMM system is configured to be calibrated by determining the 6 dof pose of a jig, and to a method for calibrating. The jig may be mounted such that a current pose of the jig is associated with a current pose of the rotary table with respect to the CMM. The rotary table may be moved into multiple poses, and the 6 dof pose of the jig is measured for each of the multiple poses of the rotary table. An error map is generated, based on the angles associated with the poses of the rotary table, and is used to generate a coordinate transformation from the CMM coordinate system to the part coordinate system, which is associated with the rotary table, based on the error map.

Rotary table compensation

A capacitive distance sensor for determining distances from an object, wherein the distance sensor has at least one sensor electrode and at least one compensation electrode. Deviations from an ideal parallel orientation of distance sensor and object and/or errors caused by capacitive edge effects can be compensated by means of the compensation electrode.

Capacitive distance sensor

A distance measuring method and device, wherein a first and a second laser radiation are generated so that the first laser radiation has a first frequency modulation and the second laser radiation has a second frequency modulation, wherein at least in sections a time derivative of the first frequency modulation is different from a time derivative of the second frequency modulation. In accordance with the invention the first and the second laser radiation are generated by modulating a base radiation by means of an electro-optical modulator, so that an output radiation comprising a carrier component and a plurality of sideband components is produced, wherein a first sideband component provides the first laser radiation and a second sideband component provides the second laser radiation.

Use of the sidebands of a mach-zehnder modulator for a FMCW distance measurement

A distance measuring method and a distance meter for a distance measurement according to the principle of a frequency-modulated continuous wave radar, wherein at least a part of a first laser radiation, which comprises a first frequency modulation defining a first modulation band, and at least a part of a second laser radiation, which comprises a second frequency modulation defining a second modulation band, are emitted as the first or as the second emission radiation, respectively, to a target. A parameter is determined, which is indicative of a frequency offset between the first and the second modulation band, and the parameter is taken into consideration during the determination of the at least one distance to the target to derive a frequency difference between the first frequency modulation and the second frequency modulation.

Dual-beam FMCW distance measuring method having compensation of a velocity-dependent distance measurement error

Some embodiments of the invention include a capacitive linear encoder for determining positions comprising a scale and a read head for capacitively scanning the scale, wherein scale and read head are movable relative to one another. The scale has at least one, preferably capacitive, position reference marker. On the basis of the position references provided by the capacitive position reference marker, the positions are locatable in absolute terms and verifiable.

Capacitive linear encoder

Some embodiments of the invention include an absolute capacitive rotary encoder comprising a first disk, which is rotatable relative a second disk, and a first sensor ring and a second sensor ring. The first and the second sensor ring each have a multiplicity of first coupling electrodes and second coupling electrodes capacitively coupling to one another. The first coupling electrodes of a respective sensor ring have different coupling signal phases. The first sensor ring and the second sensor ring are matched to one another in such a way that an angle is determinable absolutely.

Absolute capacitive rotary encoder

The invention relates to a method for surveying at least one target using a geodetic device. According to said method, a camera of the device captures a visual image and surveys an angle and/or a distance to the target with geodetic precision, the angle and/or distance surveillance being supported or controlled by the visual image. At the same time of capture of the visual image at least two distance points of a distance image are captured as the spatial distribution of discrete distance points in the area of detection. When the visual image and the distance image are correlated with each other, the target is recognized or the measuring process is controlled.

Method and geodetic device for surveying at least one target

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

Highly accurate electro-optical time of flight distance measuring device for determining a distance to a target, including a transmitter for sending out a pulse shaped optical radiation to the target as well as a receiver for an optical signal built for turning the optical signal to an electrical signal, and a filter with a transfer function for filtering the electrical signal whereby the filter is built in such a way that its transfer-function is of at least 4th order, in particular 5th or 7th or higher order, so that aliasing is suppressed. Further a waveform-sampler, as an analog-to-digital-converter, for digitalizing the pulse shape from the filtered electrical signal as time- and value-quantized digital data, and a computation means for a numerical evaluation of the distance according to the pulse shape or a pulse shape representing numerical signature from the digital data.

Highly accurate distance measurement device

Method and systems for determining a change of distance to an object by interferometry with emitting measurement laser light from a laser diode are disclosed. The method may include receiving at least a part of the measurement laser light, superimposing the reflected measurement laser light with a reference laser light and thereby providing at an interferometric phase and determining the change of distance to the object depending on the superimposition. In some embodiments, the measurement laser light may be emitted with low coherence and broad spectral bandwidth. An emitting wavelength of the measurement laser light may be fluctuating hop-freely within the spectral bandwidth causing interferometric phase fluctuations.

Interferometric determination of distance change with laser diode, high bandwidth detection and fast signal processing

A method for speckle mitigation in an interferometric distance meter comprises the steps of transmitting optical radiation with at least one wavelength &#x3bb; to a target to be surveyed, receiving a portion of the optical radiation scattered back by the target in an optical axis (OA), wherein the optical radiation forms a speckle field, converting the received optical radiation into at least one received signal, determining a true distance to the target from the received signal by absolute or incremental interferometric distance measurements. In the method the true pointing direction relative to the optical axis (OA) is determined, wherein the distance error due to speckle effects is corrected.

Method for speckle mitigation in an interferometric distance meter by determining a pointing direction

In a distance-measuring method, chirped laser radiation with two separable radiation components is emitted to at least one target to be surveyed and via a local oscillator path, the radiation components having an opposite chirp as a time dependency of the modulated wavelengths (&#x3bb;, &#x3bb;). After reception of the laser radiation scattered back from the target and passed via the local oscillator path, the laser radiation received is converted into signals and the distance to the at least one target is determined from the signals on the basis of interferometric mixing, separation of the radiation components being effected on the basis of their spectral characteristic.

Interferometric distance measuring method with spectrally separable double chirp and device

In a distance-measuring method comprising a distance-measuring apparatus having at least one frequency-modulatable laser source for producing chirped laser radiation. The laser radiation has radiation components with opposite chirp as time dependency of the modulated wavelengths, the simultaneous oppositeness of the frequency curve being realized via an optical delay path () for one of the two radiation components. The radiation produced is passed in a measuring interferometer () to a target () and parallel via a local Oscillator. After reception of the laser radiation scattered back from the target () and passed via the local oscillator path, the laser radiation received is converted into signals and the distance to the at least one target () is determined from the signals on the basis of interferometric mixing.

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Heiden, Switzerland

Marcel Rohner