Integrating point cloud scans, image data, and total station data from a surveying instrument into one adjustment

Abstract

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.