Inside the Trimble X9: Deep Dive into Trimble X9 Auto-Calibration 3
Automatic Calibration
Let'sstartwithasimpleanalogybeforewegetintothedetailsofthisuniquetechnology.Consider
thecalibrationequipmentrequiredto produceandservice3Dlaserscannerstoday.Different
equipmentcanweighover200kg(500lbs)andcostmorethanUS$220,000(€205,000).Now
imagineminiature versionsofthisequipmentincludedinsidetheTrimbleX9toenableautomatic
calibrationsanywhere.
Figure1:Miniaturizedinternalcollimatorisinthebase
TheTrimbleX9auto-calibratesangularanddistancemeasurementssimilartohowcalibration
equipmentisusedtocalibrate"standard"laserscanners,butonamuchsmallerscale. A
miniaturizedinternalcollimatorlocatedinthebaseoftheinstrumentperformsfullangular
calibrationsandaxiserrormeasurements.TheEDM(ElectronicDistanceMeasurement)scannerand
thedeflectionunitareintegratedinsidethescanningcenterunit.Thedeflectionunitcontainsa
high-speedmotorandanencodersystem.Locatedinthecenterunitisamirrorcapableof
measuringthetrunnionaxiserror.Inaddition,astandardtotalstationverticaldriveandangle
encodersystemisintegratedintothealidade,meaningthatthecompletecenterunit,includingthe
deflectionunitandEDMsource,canberotatedaroundthetrunnionaxisinthemanner
characteristicoftotalstations.
