Enhancing the accuracy of the Leica Nova TS60 total station: A multi-purpose camera-based optical measurement system

Abstract. The increasing demand for accurate 3D coordinate measures in industry, medicine and environmental sciences often comes with multiple constraints regarding the object distance, required accuracy and object signalization. While many systems are specialized in one domain, there are only few systems that operate in close-range applications with extremely high accuracy and are also capable of monitoring deformations at a distance of a few hundred meters. Therefore, a measurement system based on the astro-geodetic observation system QDaedalus is introduced using two combined image-assisted total stations (IATS) Leica NOVA TS60. By combining exact collimation, camera calibration and spatial intersection we show in several close-range experiments that our system is capable of measuring various kind of targets with a 3D point accuracy below 0.01 mm.