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A mobile robot for monitoring floor flatness in real-time

  • Christoph Naab EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 5, 2022
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Journal of Applied Geodesy
From the journal Journal of Applied Geodesy Volume 17 Issue 2

Abstract

As part of the structural inspection, compliance with the specified flatness tolerances according to DIN (in particular DIN 18202:2019-07) has to be checked. Today, the monitoring of the flatness is carried out mainly with levelling instruments and tacheometers. However, these measuring methods are time-consuming, as stacking out the measuring grid and capturing the heights are performed manually. In addition, the data evaluation must be done in a separate work step. Therefore, we developed the mobile robot RITA for height measurement in combination with a stationary tacheometer. Now, the entire process of flatness control is carried out automatically, and heights are recorded reliably in real-time. For practicality, we developed a compact design of the mobile robot in combination with hardware modules. Our reflector tracking unit makes it possible to follow the reflector on the robotic platform in order to maintain the line of sight to the tacheometer. Furthermore, our mechanical pendulum unit ensures that the height measurement is always carried out vertically, even if the robot itself is tilted. Initial practical tests have shown that the high demands on the robotic platform are met and that the implementation of the flatness control can be automated. For that, investigations concerning the location accuracy of the robot were carried out, and the height measurement was validated. It turns out, that demands in the lowest millimeter range are fulfilled. Overall, these tests showed the enormous gain in performance due to the newly developed height measurement robot compared to the previous slow, complex, and tiring manual process.

Keywords: civil engineering; deformation; flatness; mobile robot; tacheometer; tolerance control; total-station
Corresponding author: Christoph Naab, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Geodetic Institute, Englerstraße 7, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany, E-mail:

Funding source: ZIM, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany

Award Identifier / Grant number: Research project (ZF4470901)

Acknowledgments

The research project (ZF4470901) was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany within the funding program “ZIM.” “ZIM” stands for “Zentrales Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand,” which means “Central Innovation Programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).” The new measuring solution was developed in cooperation with “Vermessungsbüro Lingel.”

  1. Author contributions: Author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: The research project (ZF4470901) was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany within the funding program “ZIM.”

  3. Conflict of interest statement: Author declares no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

References

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Received: 2022-09-29
Accepted: 2022-10-26
Published Online: 2022-12-05
Published in Print: 2023-04-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Guest Editorial
  3. Special Issue: Deformation Monitoring
  4. Research Articles
  5. High-precision intermode beating electro-optic distance measurement for mitigation of atmospheric delays
  6. EDM-GNSS distance comparison at the EURO5000 calibration baseline: preliminary results
  7. A mobile robot for monitoring floor flatness in real-time
  8. On the quality checking of persistent scatterer interferometry data by spatial-temporal modelling
  9. Image segmentation of breakwater blocks by edge-base Hough transformation
  10. Real movement or systematic errors? – TLS-based deformation analysis of a concrete wall
  11. Investigation of space-continuous deformation from point clouds of structured surfaces
  12. Supervoxel-based targetless registration and identification of stable areas for deformed point clouds
  13. Forecasting post-earthquake rockfall activity
https://doi.org/10.1515/jag-2022-0046
Keywords for this article
civil engineering; deformation; flatness; mobile robot; tacheometer; tolerance control; total-station

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Guest Editorial
  3. Special Issue: Deformation Monitoring
  4. Research Articles
  5. High-precision intermode beating electro-optic distance measurement for mitigation of atmospheric delays
  6. EDM-GNSS distance comparison at the EURO5000 calibration baseline: preliminary results
  7. A mobile robot for monitoring floor flatness in real-time
  8. On the quality checking of persistent scatterer interferometry data by spatial-temporal modelling
  9. Image segmentation of breakwater blocks by edge-base Hough transformation
  10. Real movement or systematic errors? – TLS-based deformation analysis of a concrete wall
  11. Investigation of space-continuous deformation from point clouds of structured surfaces
  12. Supervoxel-based targetless registration and identification of stable areas for deformed point clouds
  13. Forecasting post-earthquake rockfall activity
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