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G. Retscher:
"Multi-Sensor Systems for Machine Guidance and Control";
Talk: XXII International Congress FIG 2002, Washington DC; 2002-04-19 - 2002-04-26; in: "XXII FIG International Conference", American Society for Photogrammetrie and Remote Sensing, (2002).

New developments in construction industry in recent years have led to an increase in productivity of construction works and corresponding cost savings. Starting from a classification of machinery employed for road and railway construction, suitable systems and sensors have to be assigned to solve a specific task. In modern systems for construction machine guidance, multi-sensor systems are employed that consists usually of a 3-D surveying system, i.e., either RTK GPS or total stations with automatic targeting and tracking, and additional sensors, e.g., electronic inclinometers, gyro compass, etc. In a comparison with conventional systems, their main advantages and disadvantages and major applications are highlighted.

For guidance of the machine along the defined path, the position and orientation of the machine in a 3-D coordinate system, e.g., the coordinate system of the construction site, has to be determined continuously in real-time. This problem can be solved by defining a so-called machine coordinate system (or body frame) that is embedded in the machine or machine blades. Then the orientation and rotation of the frame in 3-D space are described by three attitude parameters. The position and attitude parameters are obtained in the evaluation process from the observation of all sensors of the multi-sensor system. A modified approach based on optimal linear estimation methods (Kalman and Wiener filter) for the determination of the machine blade movements will be discussed and analysed briefly.