Surveying Instruments and Technology

Leonid Nadolinets, Eugene Levin, Daulet Akhmedov

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351649384
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

With the advent of GPS/GNSS satellite navigation systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) surveying profession is nowadays facing its transformative stage. Written by a team of surveying experts, Surveyor's Instruments and Technology gives surveying students and practitioners profound understanding of how surveying instruments are designed and operating based on surveying instrument functionality. The book includes the required basic knowledge of accurate measurements of distances and angles from theoretical principles to advanced optical, mechanical, electronic and software components for comparative analysis. Readers are presented with basic elements of UAS systems, practical interpretation techniques, sensor components, and operating platforms. Appropriate for surveying courses at all levels, this guide helps students and practitioners alike to understand what is behind the buttons of surveying instruments of all kinds when considering practical project implementations.

1

Introduction

1.1Surveying Profession and Instruments: Historical Perspective

The most ancient of known maps were found in Spain. They were engraved 13,667 years ago on a hand-sized rock and probably were made by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers (Bates 2009) (see Figure 1.1). In spite of ease of use, the metric quality of that map is questionable and it was produced based on the visual perception and imagination of the hunter-gatherers. Thus we may call them the first cartographers, but not surveyors. The surveying profession combines professionalism in measurements on terrain with social (land-laws related) responsibilities.

Figure 1.1Ancient map.

The first historically documented professional surveying responsibilities can be attributed to the famous thumb of Menna dated 1400 bc. Menna lived during the New Kingdom of Egypt (Eighteenth Dynasty), 3500 years ago. He was one of the surveying crew that consisted of four royal scribe surveyors (the others being Amenhotpe-si-se, Djeserkareseneb, and Khaemhat), through whose funerary monumentation can be seen in Figure 1.2 (“Menna–TT69,” n.d.). Distance measurement instruments of that time were called “snakes” and basically comprised the same principles as the measurement tapes used by surveyors until the middle of the twentieth century (Figure 1.3). Steel tape measures are used for home property survey, property line survey, and any other survey that requires a distance measurement. Survey crews still use steel tape measures, even in the era of high tech electronic survey equipment. As for angular measurements, a pioneering instrument was developed by Eratosphenes (Figure 1.4), who used the first sun-ascending angle instrument, called the gnomon (sundial), for accurate definition of the circumference of the Earth around 240 bc (Smith 2005).

Figure 1.2Scribe Djeserkareseneb carrying out a survey of the crops (a) and Scribe Menna looks authoritatively over his surveying party (b). (© Osirisnet.net)

Figure 1.3Metallic tape was used as the main distance-measuring instrument until the first half of the twentieth century (a). Surveying distance measurements with a tape (b). (Adapted from Heanders. 2012. Using a steel tape measure to survey. InfoBarrel. http://www.infobarrel.com/Using_A_Steel_Tape_Measure_To_Survey.)

Figure 1.4Principles of Earth circumference measurement by gnomon-sundial (Eratosphenes project).

Ancient Romans also contributed to surveying instrument development by creating a groma (known as Roman measurement cross) by Heron of Alexandria (O’Connor and Robertson 1999) (Figure 1.5) and the first level prototypes by Vitruvius (Opdenberg 2008). The dioptra (diopter), invented in Greece 300 bc as an astronomic instrument (Figure 1.6), was used by astronomers and then adopted by surveyors. The dioptra was a sighting tube, or alternatively a rod with a sight at both ends, attached to a stand. If fitted with protractors, it could be used to measure angles and can be considered as a prototype of modern theodolites (Evans 1998).

Figure 1.5Ancient Roman surveying instruments groma (a) and chorobates (b).

Figure 1.6Three stages in the evolution of the dioptra, from a simple horizontal sight to a multi-triangle measuring tool.

In the sixteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci invented a mechanical odometer designed to measure the distance traveled by a carriage (Moon 2007) (Figure 1.7).

Figure 1.7Da Vinci odometer.

Significant progress in surveying instrument development was achieved due to invention of the telescope by Galileo (Van Helden 2004). In 1593 German mathematician Cladius developed the nonius principle (Berry 1910), which is widely deployed in modern surveying instruments (Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8Telescope of Galileo (a) and nonius principle (b).

In 1662 French engineer Thevenoux invented the cylindrical level (Deumlich 1982) and in 1674 Italian scientist Mantanari designed a telescope with parallel wires to measure distances (“Register: Milestones of geodesy,” n.d.). British scientists Sisson and Ramsden, in the eighteenth century, developed the first theodolite, principally almost analogous to modern instruments (McConnell 2013). The start of the electronic distance measurer (EDM) can be attributed to invention in Sweden by Bergstrand of the phase measurements principle realized in the device later called the geodimeter (Bergstrand 1960). The theodolite and geodimeter are depicted in Figure 1.9.

Figure 1.9The first theodolite by Sisson and Ramsden (a), and the first EDM, the geodimeter (b).

GPS and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are relatively new technologies deployed by surveying engineering at the end of t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgment
• Authors
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Levels
• Chapter 3: Theodolites
• Chapter 4: Electronic Distance Measurer (EDM)
• Chapter 5: Total Stations
• Chapter 6: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
• Chapter 7: Obtaining and Processing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Data for Surveying and Mapping
• Index