Automatic Target Recognition

I have some experience with it. What's the question?

I've used Geodimeter/Trimble since 1995. It works quite well, especially over 300 ft away. Get within 50 ft and you better walk slow or it will pass you by. The key is to anticipate it's next movement. Sorta like training a dog, except you are the dog.

I guess the other manufacturers have gone the same way, so they don't lock on anything except the target. As it should always have been, which is why I started with Geodimeter in the first place.

Not sure if the A stands for Automatic or Active Target Recognition, or maybe both.

Active means you're Target has powered diodes, that's the way the 5600 series works, the newer S3 works only with a normal Passive prism (but tracks very well if you don't wear a safety vest or work in traffic a lot, it will keep lock at a lot of reflective objects) The S6 and S8 can use both systems active and passive.

We use the Active Target all the time, in very rare occasions it tracks the reflection of the target in a window, it even shoots distances at these reflections, that's why we always turn on the red/green search light, so you can see where the gun is looking at the right target.

chr.

I am thinking Automatic Target Recognition for deformation modelling. Will the S6 or S8 recognize a target like this?

Here is an article on it. But, it really doesn't address the issue.
http://www.gmat.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/ug/projects/Wooby/wooby%20webpage.htm

I would not recommend using ATR or Autolock on such reflective targets. If you really rely on ATR it's better to use special prisms like these

These are more expensive ofcourse, but worth the trouble if you have to monitor for a long time.

We will be looking at 300 points, every two hours, for two weeks. I understand glass prisms are better. Do you have a link for the target shown?

I still need to know if anyone has had a good or bad experiences with the reflective tape type of targets and automatic target recognition with an S6 or S8.

300 targets is a lot.
A link to the shown prism can be found here: http://webshop.geometius.nl/index.php/spezialzubehoer/bauwerkueberwachung.html

But 300 of these would be quite expensive, even without considering installing every single one of them. Do you need to monitor continuously or once every day?
An S6 or S8 will lock on such target, but it is not unlikely it will fix on the corner of the target. That will result in an angle error.
I think Trimble advises to use Autolock only on prisms, and not on any other surface.

Obviously, I misunderstood your inquiry. Sure sounds like a cool job though. I want one.

You may want to search for John Hamilton. He is one of the Beerleg (exRPLS.com) resident damn deformation experts. Even with GPS.

Richard,

While I don't use the Trimble total station, I posted a thread on a similar topic a few months ago. http://beerleg.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=67829#p67955

I have since experimented with using the auto-pointing feature of my total station, a Sokkia SRX3 robot, in conjunction with reflective sheet targets. As Cliff Mugnier suggested, I cut out diamond shaped reflectors for use in my experiments. The roll of reflective tape that I acquired has a pattern of equilateral triangles imposed upon it, giving a guide for cutting out the diamond shape.

My limited experiments tell me that the pointing is actually quite accurate, at close distance, though I do not have any statistical proof of this. Further, I have not determined, yet, whether the pointing accuracy degrades with distance, but I suspect that it does. The reason that I have not further tested this capability is because of a limitation that I found with my data collector software, Survey Pro Robotic 4.8.5, which does not support the use of reflective sheet targets with the SRX3. I had submitted a feature request to Spectra Precision on this matter, but I am unsure whether it has been added in later versions of the software.

Al

We are performing a similar job now at Bluestone Dam in southern WV. We are using a Trimble S8 monitoring pre-set prisms. The construction company just installed a number of prisms along the dam. They are using Leica prisms. We have had no trouble locating them. As long as you have an S6 or S8 and not a 5600 series then you should have no trouble. The 5600 series will not lock on to any other prisms.