Optoelectronic system to position large objects in space

We developed an optoelectronic system for accurate positioning of large objects in space, such as scenes, buildings and open spaces. It is composed of two optical telemeters with high accuracy, each mounted on a 2-axis rotation stage. The rotation stages are mounted at a known and calibrated distance Two PCs control the system, operating in a master-slave configuration and connected wirelessly. The master PC controls the system, being interfaced to the rotation stages for position control, and to the telemeters to acquire distance information The slave computer is a small, portable PC, held by the operator who must position the objects in the scene. The slave PC runs the positioning software. The systems makes use of a combination of triangulation (to visually assist the operator during the positioning process) and laser telemetry. Following calibration and geo-referencing of the system, the placement of the objects is made by positioning in sequence, with a sufficient accuracy, a suitable number of markers of the object. System performances are: a maximum working range of 300m, a positioning repeatability of 25mm and a maximum error of 10mm.