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Electroninc Distance Measurement (EDM)

III. EDM, Chapter A. Operating Principles

Prev Chap: Contents | Next Chap: B. Errors
Chapter A: 1. Electromagnetic energy | 2. Distance determination | 3. Distance reduction | 4.
Evolutionary development | 5. Reflector | 6. Reflectorless total stations

1. Electromagnetic Energy
The electromagnetic principles of EDM theory and operation are well covered in most surveying text books and on the
internet. The intent here is to give the reader a general understanding of EDM so that error sources are better understood
and controlled.
An EDM uses electromagnetic (EM) energy to determine the length of a line. The energy originates at an instrument at one
end of a line and is transmitted to a "reflector" at the other end from where it is returned to the originating instrument. The
nature of the "reflector" is dependant on the type of EM. If electro-optical (infrared or laser) EM is used then the "reflector" is
typically a passive medium which bounces the signal back. If the EM is microwave, then the reflector is a second instrument
which captures the incoming energy and re-transits it back to the originating instrument.

Fig 1 - Electro-optical System

Fig 2 - Microwave System

In either case the measurement is the total distance from the instrument to the reflector and back to the instrument.
Comparing the two EM types:
EM Type
Electro-optical
Microwave

Advantages
Less susceptible to atmospheric conditions.
Less expensive: only a single transmitter
needed.
Can penetrate fog and rain.
Longer range.
Transmitter at both ends allows voice
communication.

Disadvantages
Shorter range.
Atmospheric affects are greater.
Susceptible to ground reflected signals.
More expensive: requires two transmitters.

The rest of this chapter will limit discussion to electro-optical EM instruments since the majority of EDMs (and Total

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Stations) employ that EM type.

2. Distance Determination
An EDM does not determine distance by measuring the travel time of the EM signal. Instead, an EDM uses the signal
structure and determines the phase shift. The EM signal has a sinusoidal wave form. Remember from trigonometry that the
sine curve looks like:

Fig 3 - Sine Curve

This wave form repeats every 360. The distance between wave form ends is the wavelength, ?:

Fig 4 - Wavelength
Different wavelengths are generated at different modulation frequencies, f. Wavelength, frequency, and the speed of light
are related by:
Eqn (III-1)

The wavelength is a known quantity since it is generated by the EDM at a specific frequency. The signal leaves the EDM at
0 phase, goes thru N number of full phases on its way to and from the reflector, and returns to the EDM at some angle
between 0 and 360 creating a partial wavelength, p:

Fig 5 - Signal Propagation

The total distance is (N + p). The EDM can very accurately determine the length of the last partial wavelength from its
phase.

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Example
Assume the wavelength in Fig 5 is 20.00 ft. The last partial wave is:

If N=10, then the total distance EDM-reflector-EDM is:

The distance between the EDM and reflector is half that: 204.584 ft / 2 = 102.292 ft.

Unfortunately, the EDM can't determine it how many full wavelengths occurred along the distance.
So how does it resolve this dilemma?
By decreasing the frequency by a factor of 10 and repeating the process. Decreasing the frequency by a factor of 10
increases the wavelength by a like amount. The partial wavelength at this level will give the next higher distance digit. This is
repeated a number of times until the distance is resolved.
Fig 6 illustrates three frequencies each folded out to show a continuous EDM-reflector-EDM path:

f1 = 10xf2; f2 = 10xf3
Fig 6 - Multiple frequencies
Example
The following table shows the length of the last partial wave for each of 4 different wavelengths. What is the total
distance?
,
10.00
100.0
1000.
10,000

ft
ft
ft
ft
ft

p, ft
3.69
53.7
454
8450

dist, ft

The digits in bold represent the digits added to the distance as a result of each partial wavelength.
,
10.00
100.0
1000.
10,000

ft
ft
ft
ft
ft

p, ft
3.69
53.7
454
8450

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dist, ft
3.69
53.69
453.69
8453.69

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The total distance is 8453.69 feet. The distance from the EDM to the reflector is 8453.69/2 = 4226.84 ft

3. Distance Reduction
An EDM measures the line of sight distance between the instrument and reflector. This is a slope distance and not
horizontal unless the EDM and reflector are at the same elevation.

Fig 7 - Slope Distance

In order to determine a horizontal or vertical distance additional information is needed. Combining an EDM with a digital
theodolite results in a Total Station Instrument (TSI). When distance measurement is made, the TSI measures the slope
distance and a zenith angle.

Fig 8 - Total Station Instrument

From these two measurements, the Horizontal and Vertical distances are computed by the instrument:

Eqn (III-2)

Eqn (III-3)

It's a little more complex than this and we'll discuss a refinement in the section on Errors.

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4. Evolutionary sidebar
Early attempts to integrate EDMs with theodolites resulted in some pretty interesting (and bizarre) hybrid instruments.
When EDMs were first affordable a typical procedure a surveyor used would be: (1) measure a zenith angle with a
theodolite, (2) remove the theodolite from the tripod and mount the EDM (often using the same tribrach to maintain the
same setup) and measure the slope distance, and, finally (3) manually reduce the slope distance to horizontal.
As EDMS became more affordable and smaller, other integration methods appeared.
EDMS were placed in yokes mounted to a theodolite's standards. The vertical angle would be measured with the theodolite,
and recorded or manually entered into the EDM. The slope distance would be measured with the EDM. Slope would be
reduced to horizontal either manually or by the EDM if it could accept angle input.
The advantage of this mounting method was that the EDM's measuring center was always vertically above the same
point - it did not change position as it was elevated or depressed to sight the prism.
The disadvantage was that if the zenith angle was measured to the center of the prism an offset error was
introduced because the signal path and line of sight weren't coincident.
Another mounting method placed the EDM on top of, and later above and below, the theodolite telescope. Measurement
and slope reduction was similar to that of a yoke-mount EDM.
This method had the same disadvantage as the yoke mount plus two additional ones: (1) It shifted the measuring
center of the EDM as the zenith angle changed (necessitating more computations), and, (2) it stressed the telescope
mount and lock which were not designed for the additional eccentric weight.
It wasn't until the digital theodolite was developed that the EDM could be seamlessly integrated with an angle measuring
device: the Total Station. This has become the primary instrument for most surveyors and represents the latest evolutionary
step of the EDM. For the rest of this chapter, we will discuss distance measurement with a TSI.

5. Reflector
Any surface capable of reflecting the electro-optical signal will allow distance measurement. However, the more efficient the
reflector, the stronger the returned signal and the longer distance which can be measured. Efficiency includes amount of
signal reflected along with the direction of its return path. For example, while a flat mirror reflects most of the signal, if it is
not perpendicular to the incoming path, the signal will be reflected away from the TSI.

Mirror perpendicular to signal path

Mirror not perpendicular to signal path
Fig 9 - Mirror Reflector
To overcome this problem, a corner cube prism is used as a reflector for most TSIs. A corner cube prism is based on a 45
right angle prism. This type of prism has the property that any signal which intersects its long (hypotenuse) side will be
reflected parallel to the incoming path even if the prism is not perpendicular to the signal path.

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Prism perpendicular to signal path

Prism not perpendicular to signal path
Fig 10 - Prism Reflector
A typical corner cube prism uses a glass cylinder having three 45 facets at one end. This creates three right angle prisms
all sharing the glass cylinder's flat front as their hypotenuse. From the front the facets appear as six radial segments:

Fig 11 - Prism, front view

The result is a highly efficient reflector for both signal strength and direction. Efficiency can be increased by using multiple
prisms - this results in more signal being reflected increasing distance range. Using a triple prism can increase range by 5060% depending on atmospheric conditions.

Fig 12 - Triple prism

Over short distances of a few hundred feet, other objects such as bicycle reflectors and reflective tape will also work. While
not as efficient as a prism they have the advantage of being cheap.

6. Reflectorless Total Stations

The past decade has seen the introduction and maturation of reflectorless total stations. Their inherent advantage is the
ability to measure distances to points not accessible with a prism. Their biggest drawback is their generally (much) shorter
range. This is in large part dependent on surface reflectivity. However, most reflectorless instruments can also use a prism as
a conventional TSI giving them greater flexibility.
A reflectorless TSI uses short pulses of high energy laser light. This energy is considerably higher than that used by phase
shift TSIs in order to get a return signal off low reflection surfaces. The instrument measures travel times of the laser pulses
and from that can determine the total instrument-surface-instrument distance.
Because the laser pulses reflect off different surfaces, care must be exercised when pointing the instrument. This is
especially critical when there are multiple surfaces at various orientations near the measurement point. Many instruments
feature a built-in laser pointer which provides the operator a visual indication of where the measurement will be made.

Prev Chap: Contents | Next Chap: B. Errors

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J. Mahun 16 Aug 2013

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