Calibration of CCD sensors mounted on geodetic measuring systems

Abstract

If the eyepiece of a total station is replaced with a CCD sensor, the most important task is to calibrate the instrument. Calibration establishes a connection between the readings on the horizontal and vertical circles of the total station and the readings in the coordinate system of the CCD sensor. Our calibration method uses a collimator in a few meters distance, which serves as a target at infinity during the calibration. We tested the calibration using a QDaedalus astrogeodetic measuring system. The optimal number of calibration measurements, the optimal raster size, and the temperature dependence of the measurements were investigated.

Keywords:

• CCD sensor
• Total station
• Collimator
• Calibration Matrix
• Temperature dependence
• Astrogeodetic measurements
• QDaedalus

Acknowledgment

We also thank for the insightful comments by C. Hirt and an anonymous reviewer which helped us to significantly improve our paper.

Notes on contributors

Lajos Völgyesi graduated as a geophysicist; he is a professor at the Department of Geodesy and Surveying at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. His main research fields are the physical, astronomical, and mathematical geodesy, gravity field of the Earth, the time variation of gravity, torsion balance- and astrogeodetic measurements, the physical background of geoid anomalies, and the rotation of the Earth. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Gyula Tóth is an associate professor at the Department of Geodesy and Surveying at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. His main research fields are mathematical, physical and astronomical geodesy and global and regional gravity field modelling based on satellite and surface gravity gradiometry data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office – NKFIH No. 124286.