US 12,123,717 B2
Total station with compensation for misaligned optical aiming point
Wayne Johnston, Broomfield, CO (US)
Assigned to Trimble Inc., Westminster, CO (US)
Filed by Trimble Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 7, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/570,922.
Prior Publication US 2023/0221118 A1, Jul. 13, 2023
Int. Cl. G01C 15/00 (2006.01); G06T 7/73 (2017.01); G01S 17/08 (2006.01)
CPC G01C 15/008 (2013.01) [G06T 7/73 (2017.01); G01S 17/08 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of operating a total station, the method comprising:
receiving a manual adjustment of a telescope of the total station to set a target at last partially within a field of view (FOV) of an electronic distance measurement (EDM) unit of the total station, wherein, after the manual adjustment, an optical aiming point associated with the telescope is misaligned from a center point of the target by an offset angle;
receiving, via a user interface of the total station, a user input indicating that the manual adjustment has been performed;
in response to receiving the user input:
measuring a slope distance between the total station and the target using the EDM unit; and
measuring an angle associated with the optical aiming point;
computing the offset angle between the optical aiming point and the center point of the target based on the slope distance; and
computing an angle associated with the center point of the target based on the angle associated with the optical aiming point and the offset angle.