METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCKING ONTO A RETROREFLECTOR WITH A LASER TRACKER

A three-dimensional (3D) coordinate measurement system includes a communication device, a retroreflector, and a laser tracker. The communication device includes a first light source and an operator-controlled unit that controls emission from the first light source. The laser tracker includes a wide...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors BRIDGES ROBERT E, PARK JENNIFER K
Format Patent
LanguageEnglish
Published 19.02.2015
Subjects
ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
CALCULATING
COMPUTING
COUNTING
DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES
ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES
MEASURING
MEASURING ANGLES
MEASURING AREAS
MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS
MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEARDIMENSIONS
PHYSICS
RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING
RADIO NAVIGATION
TESTING
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Summary:A three-dimensional (3D) coordinate measurement system includes a communication device, a retroreflector, and a laser tracker. The communication device includes a first light source and an operator-controlled unit that controls emission from the first light source. The laser tracker includes a wide field-of-view (FOV) camera, a second light source, a narrow FOV camera next to the second light source, and a processor. The processor determines that a lock-in command has been given in response to the wide FOV camera capturing light emitted by the first light source. To lock onto the retroreflector, the processor captures with the narrow FOV camera light from the second light source reflected by the retroreflector and uses the image to lock onto the retroreflector with a beam of light from the tracker. It measures a distance and two angles with the tracker to get 3D coordinates of the retroreflector.
Bibliography:Application Number: US201414531113