Things Robots Will Lock onto

You have all mine, and then one.

Storm windows

Pretty women

We had a Zeiss that fell in love with something inside an Auto Zone one time.

yes, my geodimeter is very vain, it only looks at itself in reflections!

> yes, my geodimeter is very vain, it only looks at itself in reflections!

Well, it is a good-lookin' robot...

Oh yeah, I forgot about backsight prisms. If you have a backsight set up as you take sideshots the robot will eventually find that prism on its' own again.

I learned that on my first loop with the robot when some of my centerline of road shots shared the same position as a traverse point set on the shoulder.

Only the prism I am carrying. The Multitrack prism head came out just about two weeks before I bought my equipment and I went with it. The S-6 never locks onto anything but that head. I wish it were a little lighter but the security is well worth it.

> Oh yeah, I forgot about backsight prisms. If you have a backsight set up as you take sideshots the robot will eventually find that prism on its' own again.

Better yet, another crew across the street's backsite prism

> > Oh yeah, I forgot about backsight prisms. If you have a backsight set up as you take sideshots the robot will eventually find that prism on its' own again.
>
> Better yet, another crew across the street's backsite prism

I usually flatten any other crew's backsight assemblies with my truck before I get started....gotta protect your territory!

Roger that. Multitrack is the shiznit.

I stacked up about 30-40 curb and gutter shots that way a while back. Now I either cover the back sight or keep a close eye on the horizontal angles if there's any chance of the instrument "finding" the wrong prism.

> I stacked up about 30-40 curb and gutter shots that way a while back. Now I either cover the back sight or keep a close eye on the horizontal angles if there's any chance of the instrument "finding" the wrong prism.

Ouch!

I try to watch the DC closely now as well.

Fortunately I spotted the problem before moving the instrument so it was a minor inconvenience to learn a valuable lesson.:-)

Our Leica systems will notify you when the current measurement is within a user specified distance from the last as well as if it is on the the back sight. In my experience, the later only works if your HR is the same as the back sight and does not take into account fore sights you have set out. Still, you know something is wrong within two shots.

Just as a side note, about twenty years ago (wow that hurts) I had a crew come back with a fair amount of topo that they had shot over a barricade to get. Every shot came in on a single plain. It seems that the reflective marking on the barricade was the return used by the EDM even though the gunner was pointing at the prism. This is not a new problem.

In the old dos based TDS software in the traverse/sideshot screen you could toggle the angle type. The correct setting for collecting data was "Angle Right" but it could be changed to bearing or azimuth to manually enter data. Unfortunately it would still collect shots with the angle in manual mode. A coworker accidentally left it set to azimuth and shot an entire ALTA of a fast food joint with the boss running the rod. When my coworker downloaded the file, all points were arranged in a straight line but at the correct horizontal and vertical distances relative to the instrument. :-O

We quietly re-shot the survey on Saturday off the clock without telling the boss what had happened.

> .... what are some of the things you've seen a robot lock onto? Here's a quick list of mine....

The diode on the RPU. That's pretty much it. Once in a long while I catch the reflection of the diode in a window.

Trimble 5603.

The problem is, you need two of these $3000 prisms if you want to traverse with them...

> The problem is, you need two of these $3000 prisms if you want to traverse with them...

Well worth it IMO. Of course you could always get a piece of scrap barricade....;-)