Engineering aspects of photogrammetric plate measurements: Including the development of a novel interferometer

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Two different factors involved in the measurement of photogrammetric plates have been studied. A novel interferometer designed to monitor the position of a microscope stage, to be used to measure photogrammetric plates, has been built. The prototype instrument is able to give the position of the stage with a maximum error of less than 200nm. An algorithm has been developed for a motor driven x-y microscope that is able to search a photographic plate automatically for targets, and record their positions. In a trial survey this system was able to measure the positions of the targets on the plates with an uncertainty of approximately 2gm. This result is comparable with the precision that a human operator could achieve using the same equipment, but without the fatigue effect associated with visual observation. Virtually no human interaction is necessary for the system to function.This work was jointly funded by The Science and Engineering Council and The National Physical Laboratory