Precise levelling in crossing river over 5 km using total station and GNSS

The trigonometric levelling using the simultaneous reciprocal method has been proved to meet the precision of second order levelling. But this method is invalid once the distance of river crossing is beyond 3.5 km due to the difficulty of target recognition at such a long distance. To expand the available range of this method, this paper focuses on solving the target aiming and distance observation over a long distance. A modular LED 5-prism (modified Leica GPR1 reflector) as an illuminated target instead of the common prism is introduced, and we adopt the sub-pixel image processing technique to recognize the center of the target image pictured by image assisted total station (Leica Nova TM50 I equipped with a coaxial camera). Based on the principle of precise trigonometric levelling, this paper utilizes two image assisted total stations using image processing technique to perform simultaneous reciprocal for zenith angle measurement and GNSS static measurement for slope distance measurement to determine the height difference of either river bank. And long-distance precise river-crossing levelling can be realized based on the mentioned above. Besides, it is successful to apply in the experiment of Fuzhou Bridge spanning 6.3 km in China. The result shows the standard deviation is ± 0.76 mm/km that is compatible with the precision of second order levelling has.