Device for determining the distance between two bodies

• Main Author: CZICHY,REINHARD
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; German
• Published: 14.04.1988
• Edition: 4
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS; MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEARDIMENSIONS; NAVIGATION; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SURVEYING; TESTING

A device for determining the distance between two bodies is described, one of which exhibits a retroreflector unit having at least two mutually spaced-apart reflectors and the other one of which exhibits an illuminating device for the retroreflector unit, a detector array on which the individual reflectors of the retroreflector unit can be imaged by means of an objective in such a manner that the diameter of their images is greater than the diameter of one sensor element, and a control unit which determines the centroid of the images of the reflectors and determines the distance from the spacing of the image centroids. The device according to the invention is characterised by the fact that the individual retroreflectors reflect light of different wavelengths, that the illuminating device sends out light of different wavelengths successively in time, which is reflected by in each case one retroreflector, and that the control unit determines the distance by means of the images of the retroreflectors which arrive separately in time. This can also be used for determining spacings or distances in which the images of the individual retroreflectors are superimposed on the detector array.