Development of a New Generation Imaging Total Station System

Total stations were developed about $20\text{years}$ ago and, since then, their measuring performance has been very much improved. However, a surveyor’s skills are still essential for precise measuring as is required for most surveying tasks. The next total station system should focus on obtaining the required accuracy and quality results by any user at the same speed as if the work were done by a skilled surveyor. Here, we have attempted to develop a new system which utilizes photogrammetric images that supply additional information. Field test results presented in this paper show that the new system displays images overlaid in real time with graphics and synchronized with a sighting telescope, can reduce the number of staff and total man days required for field measurements, and eliminates the need for editing line connections in the postprocessing task. As mentioned above, the new imaging total station system, which utilizes image and graphic data, can give considerable efficiency improvement in the total surveying process compared with conventional systems and methods.