Indoor navigation of machines and measuring devices with iGPS

Nikon´s iGPS is a very flexible large volume measurement system that is used mainly in industrial applications for alignment, inspection and tracking. In this paper three applications are presented that demonstrate iGPS feasibility in different tasks. The first application combines iGPS flexibility and advantages of scanning. Equipped with several iGPS sensors the laser scanner position is reported in the higher-level coordinate system provided by iGPS, and thus can be moved freely in the working area without further need to relate multiple scans to each other. Though iGPS was designed with industrial application in mind, it can also be used in the more difficult conditions of tunnel navigation. The navigation of road headers and other mobile excavation machines is a difficult task, since the measurement system has to deliver robust 6-degress-of-freedom-measurements of fast moving objects. In the last application the possibility to measure several sensors simultaneously was an integral part to determine deformations of an aircraft structure under force.