JPH04166715A - Surveying instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To capture the object of measurement readily by controlling the optical axis of the main body of a serveying instrument toward the object of measurement based on the result of seeking for a reflecting member with a scanning optical system, expanding the scanning range when the reflecting member is not located in the seeking range, and capturing the reflecting member. CONSTITUTION:When a reflecting member 2 is sought and scanned with a scanning optical system 10, the result is inputted into a control means. The control means computes the direction of the presence of the reflecting member 2 and turns and controls a main body 8 so that the optical axis of the main body 8 of a surveying instrument is directed toward the member 2. Then, the surveying instrument 8 automatically tracks the member 2. When the member 2 is not located in the seeking range, the control means controls the scanning optical system 10 so as to expand the seeking range. When the member 2 is captured in this range, the main body 8 is turned and controlled in the horizon tal and vertical directions so that the optical axis of the main body 8 of the surveying device is directed toward the member 2 on the basis of the result.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Applicability Meter) The present invention relates to a surveying instrument that scans an object to be measured as a reflective member in the vertical and horizontal directions and automatically tracks the object to be measured with the main body of the surveying instrument. .

(Prior Art) A light wave ranging device has been known as one type of surveying instrument, and this light wave ranging device is sometimes used by being installed on the deck of a ship or the like. The light wave ranging device has a ranging optical system, and emits light waves from the light wave ranging device toward a corner cube installed at a measurement point far away, and receives reflected light waves from the corner cube. , to measure the distance to the measurement point.

By the way, when a light wave distance measuring device is installed on the deck of a ship or the like to measure distance, the corner cube as the object to be measured may be lost due to the sloshing of the ship or the like. Therefore, recently, light wave ranging devices that can automatically track the corner cube are being developed.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, conventional light wave distance measuring devices have been designed to create corner cubes by rotating the main body of the light wave distance measuring device itself, which is a surveying instrument body with a built-in distance measuring optical system, in the horizontal and vertical directions. The structure is such that the corner cube is searched and scanned, and the light wave distance measuring device is automatically tracked to the corner cube.Since the structure is mechanically searched, there is a problem in that the search scan takes time.

In addition, as shown in Fig. 12, horizontal search scanning is performed by scanning the measurement light flux emitted from the main body of the light wave distance measuring device in the horizontal direction, and the measurement light flux reflected from the distance measurement target as a reflecting member is detected. Measurement target T from the number of scans until light is received
A structure in which the vertical position H of the object to be measured T is determined, and then, as shown in FIG. Therefore, the search scan took time. Furthermore, if there is no corner cube within the search scanning range of the light wave distance measuring device, there is also the problem that automatic tracking cannot be performed even if automatic tracking is attempted.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to be able to search for a measurement target in a short time, and to easily locate the measurement target even if the measurement target is lost. The purpose is to provide surveying equipment that can capture data.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the surveying instrument according to the present invention scans the measurement light beam in a first direction as one scan, and measures in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. By performing the scanning a predetermined number of times while deflecting the light beam, a scanning optical system scans the measurement light beam two-dimensionally, and the measurement light beam projected by the scanning optical system is reflected by a reflecting member provided at the measurement point. a light-receiving system for receiving the reflected light beam; and a light-receiving system for detecting the position of the measurement point in the second direction based on the number of scans until the reflected light beam enters the light-receiving system, and detecting the position of the measurement point in the first direction. an arithmetic unit that detects the position of the measurement point in the first direction based on a scanning time until a reflected luminous flux incident on the light receiving system is obtained by scanning along the first direction;
a control means for automatically tracking the surveying instrument body toward the measurement point based on a signal from the calculation section; and a control means for expanding the scanning range in the first scanning direction based on the scanning result and the number of scannings in the second direction. and scanning range changing means for changing the scanning range by increasing the scanning range.

(Function) According to the present invention, when the reflective member is searched and scanned by the scanning optical system, the scanning result is input to the control means. The control means calculates the direction of existence of the reflecting member based on the scanning result, and controls rotation of the surveying instrument body in the horizontal and vertical directions so that the optical axis of the surveying instrument body is directed toward the object to be measured. As a result, the surveying instrument automatically tracks the reflective member.

If there is no reflective member within the search scanning range, the control means controls the scanning optical system so that the search scanning range is expanded. For example, the scanning optical system roughly searches and scans the reflecting member. When a reflecting member is captured in its expanded search scanning range, the optical axis of the survey instrument body is directed toward the reflecting member based on the search scanning result. Move the surveying instrument body horizontally,
Control rotation in the vertical direction. Thereafter, the control means controls the scanning optical system to scan the reflective member in the search scanning range before expansion.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which a surveying instrument according to the present invention is applied to a light wave distance measuring device will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a surveying table, and 2 is a corner cube as a measurement object installed at a survey point.

The surveying platform 1 is installed, for example, on the deck of a ship.

A light wave distance measuring device 3 is installed on this surveying table 1. This light wave distance measuring device 3 has a fixed base 4 and a horizontal rotating section 5. The horizontal rotation part 5 is rotated in the direction of arrow A with respect to the fixed base 4, as shown in FIG. 2, and has a support part 6. The support portion 6 is provided with a vertical rotation shaft 7, and the vertical rotation shaft 7 is provided with a distance measuring device main body 8. The distance measuring device main body 8 is rotated in the horizontal direction by the rotation of the horizontal rotation part 5, and also rotated in the vertical direction as shown by arrow B in FIG. 1 by the rotation of the vertical rotation shaft 7.

The distance measuring device main body 8 includes a distance measuring optical system 9 and a scanning optical system 10.
and is provided. This distance measuring optical system 9 has a light projecting section 11 and a light receiving section 12, as schematically shown in FIG. The light projector 11 has a light source 13 . The light receiving section 12 has a light receiving element 14 . The light source 13 emits an infrared laser beam. The infrared laser beam is reflected by the dichroic ink mirror 16 of the beam splitter 15 toward the objective lens 17, and is emitted as a parallel beam from the distance measuring device main body 8 via the cover glass 18.

The infrared laser beam is reflected by the corner cube 2,
The light returns to the objective lens 17 via the cover glass 18, is reflected by the dichroic mirror 19 of the beam splitter 15, and is focused on the light receiving element 14.

The light receiving output of the light receiving element 14 is input to a known measuring circuit (not shown), and the distance to the corner cube 2 is measured.

The distance measuring optical system 9 has an imaging lens 20 and a reticle plate 21. Visible light passes through an objective lens 17 and a dichroic mirror 16, 19, reaches the imaging lens 20, and is converged on the reticle plate 21. The measurement person can visually recognize the measurement point location including the corner cube 2 through the eyepiece lens 22.

As shown in FIG. 4, the scanning optical system 10 includes a laser diode 23, a collimator lens 24, and a horizontal deflection element 25.
, vertical deflection element 26, reflection prism 27.28.2
9, an objective lens 30, a cover glass 31, a reflecting prism 32, a noise light removal filter 33, and a light receiving element 34. Laser diode 23, collimator lens 24
, the horizontal deflection element 25, the vertical deflection element 26, and the reflecting prisms 27, 28, and 29 generally constitute a light projecting section. The objective lens 30, the reflection prism 32, the noise light removal filter 33, and the light receiving element 34 roughly constitute a light receiving section. The horizontal deflection element 25 and the vertical deflection element 26 are composed of, for example, an acousto-optic element.

The laser diode 23 emits an infrared laser beam having a wavelength different from the wavelength of the distance measuring light wave from the distance measuring optical system 9. The infrared laser beam is made into a parallel beam by a collimator lens 24 and guided to a horizontal deflection element 25. This horizontal deflection element 25 has a function of deflecting the infrared laser beam in the horizontal direction H, as shown in FIG. The vertical deflection element 26 has a function of deflecting the infrared laser beam in the vertical direction (2).

Control of the horizontal deflection element 25 and the vertical deflection element 26 will be described later.

The infrared laser beam is deflected in the horizontal and vertical directions by the horizontal deflection element 25 and the vertical deflection element 26, guided to the reflection prism 27, reflected by the reflection prism 27, and passed through the reflection prisms 28 and 29. and is guided to the objective lens 30. The objective lens 30 has a through hole 35
is formed coaxially with the optical axis of the objective lens 30. The infrared laser beam reflected by the reflecting prism 29 is emitted to the outside of the distance measuring device main body 8 through the through hole 35, and the corner cube 2 is searched and scanned by this infrared laser beam. When the corner cube 2 is within the search scanning range, the infrared laser beam is reflected by the corner cube 2 and returns to the objective lens 30. The infrared laser beam is focused by the objective lens 30, reflected by the reflection prism 32, passes through the noise light removal filter 33, and is imaged on the light receiving element 34. The noise light removal filter 33 has a function of transmitting light having the same wavelength as the wavelength of the infrared laser beam.

According to the scanning optical system 10, since the light projecting section and the light receiving section are coaxial, there is an advantage that the infrared laser beam reflected by the corner cube 2 can be reliably received. In addition, since a noise light removal filter 33 is provided, light with wavelengths other than the wavelength of the infrared laser beam can be cut.
Search scanning can be performed reliably.

FIG. 6 shows a block circuit diagram of the control means. In this FIG.
) scan controller, 38 is a reference pulse generator, 3
9 is an H direction D/A converter, 40 is a ■ direction D/A converter, 42 is a sweep oscillator, 43 is an adder, 44 is a driver, and 45 is a motor. motor 45
The rotation is transmitted to the horizontal rotation section 5 or the vertical rotation shaft 7 via a speed reduction mechanism (not shown) consisting of a gear train or the like.

The laser diode 23 is driven and controlled by a microcomputer 36. The microcomputer 36 outputs a start pulse TS for search scanning in the horizontal direction (H) and vertical direction (V) to the dot direction/vertical direction (H-V) scan controller 37 . The horizontal/vertical (H-V) scan controller 37 counts the clock pulses CL of the reference pulse generator 38 based on the start pulse TS, and calculates the count value HCT@
It is output to the H direction/A converter 39. H direction D/A
Converter 39 periodically generates triangular wave voltage TR as shown in FIG. 7 based on the count value HCT. One period of this triangular wave voltage TR corresponds to one horizontal search scan. This triangular wave voltage TR is input to the sweep oscillator 41. The sweep oscillator 41 has a triangular wave voltage T
The horizontal deflection element 25 is driven by converting the frequency of R. The horizontal deflection element 25 deflects the infrared laser beam to a horizontal angle corresponding to the voltage value of the triangular wave voltage TR.

Horizontal/vertical (H-V) scan controller 3
7 is a scan synchronization signal SC every time one horizontal scan is completed.
is output to the microcomputer 36. H-
The V scan controller 37 counts the scan synchronization signal SC and outputs the count value VCT to the direction D/A converter 40. (2) Direction The D/A converter 40 generates a staircase wave voltage Wv whose voltage increases every horizontal scan based on its control. The staircase wave voltage W■ is input to the sweep oscillator 42. Seeb oscillator 4
2 converts the frequency of the staircase wave voltage Wv to drive the vertical deflection element 26. The vertical deflection element 26 deflects the infrared laser beam to a vertical angle corresponding to the staircase voltage Wv.

It is now assumed that the search scanning range commanded by the microcomputer 36 is as shown by the symbol in FIG. 8, and that the corner cube 2 is within the search scanning range. In the horizontal scan from scanning line number 1 to scanning line number n-2, the corner cube 2 is not within the search scanning range, so the infrared laser beam is not reflected by the corner cube 2, and therefore the light receiving element In the scanning from scanning line number n-1 to scanning line number n+1, in which the reflected light flux of the infrared laser beam does not return to 34, the corner cube 2 exists within the search scanning range. Therefore,
The reflected light flux of the infrared laser beam returns to the light receiving element 34. Therefore, the light receiving pulse RP as shown in FIG. 9 is generated during scanning of the light receiving element 34 from scanning line number n-1 to scanning line number n+1.

The received light pulse RP is input to an adder 43.

The clock pulse CL of the dot direction/vertical direction (H-V) scan controller 37 is inputted to the adder 43, and the number of pulses counted when the scan synchronization signal SC is generated, including the start pulse Ts, is set to "O" and the received light pulse RP is The counted number of clock pulses CL at the rising edge and the counted number of clock pulses CL at the falling edge of the light-receiving pulse RP are added for each horizontal scan. The microcomputer 36 reads the output value of the adder 43 every time the scan synchronization signal SC is input. Then, the output values are arithmetic averaged for each -horizontal scan. As a result, the horizontal position of the corner cube 2 is determined.

For example, in scanning from scanning line number n-1 to scanning line number n+1, the count value HCT at the rising edge of the light reception pulse RP is set to Hn-+, H,, Hn4, . , received light pulse R
The count value HCT at the falling edge of P is H'n-1, H
'4SH' nu, the horizontal position Hn -+ of the corner cube 2 by scanning the scanning line number n-1 is Hn-+= (Hn-++H' n-1) / 2Similarly, the scanning line number The horizontal position Hn, Hn and 1 of the corner cube 2 in the horizontal direction by scanning the scanning line number n+1 are respectively Hn= (H, +H' o)/2 Hn*+= (Hn-++H' ll- +) / 2.

Therefore, the average horizontal position H of corner cube 2
can be found by averaging these.

The vertical position V of the corner cube 2 is determined by the light receiving element 34.
It is calculated by dividing the sum of the scanning line numbers when the infrared laser beam is received by the number of times the infrared laser beam is received.

For example, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 8, the sum of the scanning line numbers is 3n and the number of times of light reception is three, so the vertical position V of the corner cube 2 can be determined as n. The horizontal position H1 and the vertical position V are used as driving data for the distance measuring device main body 8, and the microcomputer 36 uses the driver 44 based on this driving data.
control.

That is, the motor 45 is driven, and the distance measuring device main body 8 is rotated horizontally and vertically so that the optical axis of the distance measuring optical system 9 is directed toward the corner cube 2.
Automatic tracking of the corner cube 2 is performed.

When the microcomputer 36 determines that there is no corner cube 2 in the search scanning range K as shown in FIG. 10, it performs a search scan so that the search scanning range is expanded as shown in FIG. Change the range. Here, the microcomputer 36 scans roughly in the vertical direction. As a result, the corner cube 2 is captured within the search scanning range. and,
In the same way, the microcomputer 36 obtains drive data, activates the driver 44, and automatically tracks the corner cube 2. After the microcomputer 36 has completed capturing the corner cube 2, it changes the search scanning range to the search scanning range K before enlargement shown in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the vertical search scanning range is changed between the range indicated by arrow C and the range indicated by the arrow, and the horizontal search scanning range is changed between the range indicated by arrow E in FIG. It is changed between the range shown by arrow F.

Thereby, even if the object to be searched and scanned is lost, the object to be searched and scanned can be captured quickly and reliably.

(Effects) Since the surveying instrument according to the present invention is configured as explained above, it is possible to search for a reflective member in a short time without rotating the surveying instrument itself for search scanning, and the reflective member can be searched for in a short time. Even if you lose sight of the object to be measured, you can easily capture it.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a light wave distance measuring device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of a light wave ranging device according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an optical diagram showing the schematic configuration of the scanning optical system shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the deflection state of the scanning optical system shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the control means of the light wave distance measuring device according to the present invention; FIG. 7 is a timing chart of the control means shown in FIG. 6; FIG. 8 is a diagram of the light wave distance measuring device according to the present invention. Figure 9 is a diagram showing an example of the search scanning range by the distance measuring device; Figure 9 is a diagram showing an example of the light reception pulse of the light receiving element shown in Figure 6; Figure 10 is an explanatory diagram when there is no object to be measured in the search scanning range. , Fig. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the expanded search scanning range, Fig. 12, Fig. 1311! if is an explanatory diagram of conventional automatic tracking search scanning. 2... Corner cube (object to be measured) 3... Light wave distance measuring device 8... Distance measuring device main body 9... Distance measuring optical system lO... Scanning optical system 25... Horizontal direction deflection element 26...Vertical deflection element 36...Microcomputer Figure 5 Figure 10 I ○~2 Figure 12 Figure 11 'K' Figure 13

Claims (1)

[Claims] Scanning optics that scans the measurement light beam two-dimensionally by scanning the measurement light beam in a first direction as one scan, and performing the scanning a predetermined number of times while deflecting the measurement light beam in a second direction perpendicular to that direction. a light-receiving system for receiving the measurement light beam reflected by a reflecting member provided at a measurement point among the measurement light beam projected by the scanning optical system; The position of the measurement point in the second direction is detected by the number of scans, and the scanning time from the scan start position in the first direction until the reflected light beam incident on the light receiving system is obtained by scanning along the first direction. a calculation unit that detects the position of the measurement point in the first direction by;
a control means for automatically tracking the surveying instrument body toward the measurement point based on a signal from the calculation section; and a control means for expanding the scanning range in the first scanning direction based on the scanning result and the number of scannings in the second direction. A surveying instrument comprising: scanning range changing means for changing the scanning range by increasing the scanning range.