The relationship between the measurement error and the arrangement of laser trackers in laser trilateration

A laser tracking interferometer system developed by us is capable of measuring the coordinates of a target retroreflector. In this system, a self-calibration algorithm is used to determine system parameters such as the arrangement of laser trackers and the initial lengths of interferometers. The self-calibration algorithm is a least-squares method, hence in the algorithm a residue of measurement results is evaluated as a criterion of convergence. The relationship between the measurement error and the arrangement of the laser trackers was experimentally investigated. On the basis of these investigations, a new definition of the residue used in the self-calibration algorithm is proposed.