Motorized theodolite

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Two English ATS helpers working on an anti-aircraft kinetheodolite in World War II

A theodolite whose axes are operated by a motor is called a motorized theodolite or motor theodolite . The first examples were developed for military air defense in the 1940s . In addition to faster measurements, they also allowed the tracking of moving targets and the control of guns.

In the 1950s, engine theodolites were also developed for civil applications in geodesy . So developed Erwin Gigas at Frankfurt Institute for Applied Geodesy astronomical Gigas- Präzisionstheodolit with controllable rotational speeds and photographic circle reading , the Berlin Askania-Werke later cinetheodolite further developed. It allowed the semi-automatic observation of weather balloons and later also served for balloon-supported stellar triangulation and until around 1970 for satellite observations .

Around 1980, Heribert Kahmen developed a robot theodolite for mining at the Geodetic Institute in Hanover, which could control the specified targets of surveillance networks for movements. After his appointment to the Vienna University of Technology, further controls followed.

However, the step towards fully automatic aiming and target tracking did not succeed until the 1990s with miniaturized electro-optical sensors. In modern total stations , the automatic flow of data is also implemented in suitable storage media.

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