The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 23, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 10, 2002
Albert Markendorf, Suhr, CH;
Raimund Loser, Bad Säckingen, DE;
Leica Geosystems AG, Unterentfelden, CH;
Abstract
Using a laser-tracker ( ) with an interferometer together with a retroreflector ( ) in the form of a triple prism or a triple mirror arranged on an object and designed for parallel reflection of the laser beam ( ) directed to the reflector ( ), the position of the object is computed by way of measurement data with respect to the direction of the laser beam ( ) and its path length. Additionally the spacial orientation of the object ( ) is determined by producing additional measurement data with respect to the angle of incidence (&agr;) of the laser beam into the reflector ( ) and/or with respect to an adjustable orientation of the reflector ( ) relative to the object ( ) and by computing the position and spacial orientation of the object ( ) by way of measurement data with respect to the direction and the path length of the laser beam ( ) and by way of this additional measurement data. Thereby the measurement data of the direction measurement and of the interferometric measurement may be corrected by way of the additional measurement data with respect to the angle of incidence (&agr;) such eliminating their dependency on the angle of incidence. For determining the angle of incidence (&agr;), the reflector ( ) is designed in a manner such that a central part of the laser beam ( ) passes through the reflector ( ) unreflected and behind the reflector ( ) impinges a position sensor ( ) arranged stationarily relative to the reflector, while a peripheral part of the laser beam ( ) is reflected parallel and used for the interferometric measurement.