Optimum Establishment of Total Station

摘要

At least two control points (CPs) must be available to determine the position and orientation of a total station (TS). This paper analyzes the optimum horizontal location of the TS with respect to the CPs and answers the question: What is the best location of the TS with respect to the CPs if the goal is to determine the coordinates of the TS and detail points (DPs) as precisely as possible? The optimality is based on the uncertainty of the horizontal coordinates of the TS and of the points measured from it, as well as on the uncertainty of the TS orientation. The investigation of this optimality problem was performed both analytically and by the trial-and-error method. It was found that the optimum location of TS is in the center of gravity of all CPs. For a given configuration of the control and DPs, the location of the TS does not influence significantly the positional uncertainty of the surveyed DPs. (C) 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.