PORTABLE COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEMS FOR CREATION OF AS-BUILT DRAWINGS

IT IS PROPOSED TO ESTABLISH PROOF OF CONCEPT (IN PHASE I) AND DEVELOP (IN PHASE II) A COST-EFFECTIVE PORTABLE COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEM FOR ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING OF DATA NEEDED TO CREATE, ON-SITE IF DESIRED, AS-BUILT DRAWINGS OF FACILITIES SUCH AS BUILDINGS AND SPACE LAYOUTS. ROBUST ALGORITHMS FOR CHECKING THE MEASUREMENTS GIVEN AND USER INTERFACE GRAPHICS WILL GIVE THE NEEDED RELIABILITY FOR EVENTUAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATION. THE CORE OF THE SYSTEM WILL BE BASED ON A HIGH-PERFORMANCE 32-BIT SINGLE-BOARD COMPUTER READILY AVAILABLE. THE COMPUTER WILL BE SUPPLEMENTED WITH CONVENIENT COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE TRANSDUCERS FOR MEASUREMENT OF DISTANCES, ORIENTATIONS AND SPECIFIC REFERENCE LOCATIONS. VARIOUS OPTIONS EXIST FOR THESE SENSORS; A NUMBER OF PARTICULAR APPROACHES ARE DISCUSSED, SUCH AS AN ULTRASONIC TRANSMITTER-RECEIVER, THEODOLITE-TYPE SYSTEMS WITH DIRECT ELECTRONIC READOUT OF ANGLES AND DISTANCE, AND LASER-BASED SYSTEMS. AN OVERALL SYSTEM WITH RELIABLE DATA-ACQUISITION FROM SENSORS, REAL-TIME PROCESSING, ANALYSIS AND GRAPHICAL DISPLAY OF THE PHYSICAL LOCATION, WILL BE DESIGNED TO THE PROTOTYPE LEVEL IN PHASE I AND IMPLEMENTED IN PHASE II.