Sun light or artificially generated electromagnetic waves consists of waves of different lengths. The spectrum of an electromagnetic wave
Among these waves microwaves, infrared waves and visible light waves are useful for the distance measurement. In EDM instruments these waves are generated, modulated and then propagated. They are reflected at the point up to which distance is to be measured from the instrument station and again received by the instrument. The time taken by the wave to travel this 2x distance may be measured and
Knowing the velocity of wave, the distance may be calculated. However time is too short, measuring the time taken is difficult. The improved techniques use phase difference method in which the number of completed wave and incomplete wave is measured. Knowing the length of wave, distances are calculated. Built up microprocessors provided in the instrument calculate the distances and display it by liquid
Crystal display (LCD).
EDM instruments may be classified into the following three types:
1. Micro wave instruments
2. Infrared wave instruments
3. Light wave instruments.
Micro Wave Instruments
These instruments make use of micro waves. Such instruments were invented as early as 1950 in South Africa by Dr. T.L. Wadley and named them as Tellurometers. The instrument needs only 12 to 24 V batteries. Hence they are light and highly portable. Tellurometers can be used in day as well as in night. The range of these instrument is up to 100 km. It consists of two identical units. One unit is used as
Master unit and the other as remote unit. Just by pressing a button, a master unit can be converted into a remote unit and a remote unit into a master unit. It needs two skilled persons to operate. A speech facility is provided to each operator to interact during measurements.
Infrared Wave Instruments
In these instrument amplitude modulated infrared waves are used. Prism reflectors are used at the end of line to be measured. These instruments are light and economical and can be mounted on theodolite. With these instruments accuracy achieved is ± 10 mm. The range of these instruments is up to 3 km. These instruments are useful for most of the civil engineering works. These instruments are available in
the trade names DISTOMAT DI 1000 and DISTOMAT DI 55.
Light Wave Instruments
These instruments rely on propagation of modulated light waves. This type of instrument was first developed in Sweden and was namad as Geodimeter. During night its range is up to 2.5 km while in day its range is up to 3 km. Accuracy of these instruments varies from 0.5 mm to 5 mm/km distance. These instruments are also very useful for civil engineering projects. The advantage of using EDM instruments is the speed and accuracy in measurement. Several obstacles to chaining are automatically overcome when these instruments are used.
