What is the surveying equipment used by land surveyors?
Land surveyors use different equipment for surveying such as:
- Total stations/surveying robotic stations
- 3D Scanners are also known as scanner laser or lidar scanners
- Survey prism, survey rod, and PK (landmark nail)
Total stations Vs robotic stations
A total station and a robotic station perform the same role and are almost the same thing. A total station that is not robotic requires someone behind the device to follow the prism and the robotic follow you automatically. So robotic stations require a land surveyor and non-robotic (total stations) require a land surveyor and a cane holder.
3D scanners for land surveys
Essentially, 3D laser scanners are used to have a perfect survey of the terrain and scanned objects. With a great 3D survey, budget, and timeline planning for a construction project will be much easier. 3D scanner technology uses a laser beam sent through a rotating mirror. The scanner analyzes the interference position of each point/target and then incorporates it into a point cloud. Then software analyzes all the readings (cloud of points) which contain several million coordinates with an incredible precision of the order of a millimeter.
The prism and the rod for land surveying
Survey prisms are attached to the survey rod and are used as a focal point to gather information about distances to measure the change in position of a target that is assumed to be moving. Here’s an image of a prism.
The survey rod is used to keep the prism perfectly perpendicular to a place where you want to take a measurement.
How long is a rod in surveying?
The length of a rod varies from 1.55m to 2.6m, but some go up to more than 4m. In this latter case, it is very practical in excavation because the holes are very low and it gives the device a better chance of seeing the prism.
Lastly, PK is a survey nail that serves as a landmark on the ground. It has a notch on the head to put the tip of the rod.