Lundberg, Eric J.2014-03-142014-03-141989-09-15etd-08012012-040621http://hdl.handle.net/10919/44123The construction industry needs an accurate real-time positioning system. Such a system, if successfully implemented, would lead to significant increases in the performance of many construction operations. This thesis presents the Automated Laser Position System (ALPS) for accurate real-time positioning. ALPS is a spin-off of the Automated Position And Control System (APAC) research, sponsored by the National Science Foundation under grant DMC-8717476. The ALPS concept has three primary components: a rotation laser, laser detectors and a central processing unit. ALPS generates both horizontal (X,Y) and vertical (Z) position information. It is mathematically predicted that ALPS could produce accuracies of ± 17 mm in the horizontal and ± 5,9 mm in the vertical, at a range of 400 m. Position measurements would be updated 50 times a second.ix, 126 leavesBTDapplication/pdfenIn CopyrightLD5655.V855 1989.L874Construction equipmentLasersMachinery -- Alignment -- ResearchMachinery, Kinematics of -- ResearchThesishttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08012012-040621/