High Rise - Monitoring High Rise structures during construction

The objective of the High Rise module is to deliver precise and reliable coordinates on demand which one can use to position a total station at the top of any structure such as a tall building and which are not influenced by movements of this building.

For this purpose, the High Rise module is tightly integrated with Trimble 4D Control Server RTK Engine and In-Place Inclinometer modules and with the Trimble 4D Control Web application. Additionally, the High Rise environment requires other Trimble component, Trimble Access. For detailed information on the setup of such an environment, refer to the detailed description available on the Trimble Knowledge Network: There select Solution Center, then select End users click here. Search for "High Rise".

The High Rise module serves multiple purposes:

High-precision position adjustment and position update over time;
Full coordinate system support;
Reducing inaccuracies of the GNSS solution in a process using the raw measurements of the total stations;
Correction of movement effects by using averaged tilt sensor data;
On demand, position output in Trimble JobXML format in real-time to be used during construction;
Data visualization for monitoring and analyzing coordinates, displacements, and result from the external tilt sensors;
Report generation.

Adding the High Rise module

The module is available under an RTK Engine that must run in Baselines processing mode. When the module is being added, the High Rise Properties dialog appears. It lets you define and select High Rise module configurations. Each configuration holds information on the fixed stations, the synchronization folders used to update the coordinates, and the tilt correction. You may remove a configuration from here, if you do not need it anymore. You may change the settings of the selected High Rise configuration at any time.

Processing

Using the Trimble Access High Rise App, the operator at the high rising structure initiates the High Rise session by connecting to the Trimble 4D Control Server server. The processing and adjustment is started with the current station information. On demand by Trimble Access, the High Rise module updates the reference positions of its non-fixed stations by applying the currently estimated displacements, thus overwriting the previous coordinates in the Trimble 4D Control Server global station data list. The stations are identified by their station name. This does not apply for stations that are selected to be fixed for the High Rise module. The parent RTK Engine continues estimating the displacements from the new position and forwarding it to the High Rise module, which optionally corrects the data by additional input and adjusts it. When the operators consider the reliability (3-s values) and quality of the results of the High Rise module good enough, they use Trimble Access to retrieve the updated coordinates.

Position adjustment

From its parent RTK Engine, the High Rise module receives high-quality coordinates for a given set of stations in your network of GNSS stations. These coordinates have been computed from synchronized GNSS satellite observations of satellites with an elevation above 10° and, if available, predicted orbits. The RTK Engine supports multiple satellite systems, filter options, and using the coordinate system as selected from the Coordinate System Manager.

In addition, if the 3-s errors of GNSS positions are too large, one may improve the reliability of the adjustment results by including raw total station measurements to the GNSS adjustment. On demand by the Trimble Access operator, the High Rise module applies the latest raw measurements from a total station in an integrated "reverse" adjustment process that reduces the effects of possible inaccuracies of the RTK solution such as induced by multipath.

Finally, the High Rise module corrects the adjusted coordinates for movement effects of the high rise object by applying the two-dimensional total deflection values derived from one series of inclinometers applied to that object. The total deflection values are computed by, and derived from, Trimble 4D Control Server In-Place Inclinometer modules.

Data visualization

High Rise visualizes the network configuration and the adjustment results (original position, displacements, error ellipses) in numerical form and as two-dimensional map. Displacements refer to positions of stations.

In the Tree view, each High Rise module is represented by its configuration name combined with its operating mode and a status-identifying icon.

The module is active and processing.

The module is in infected status. For example, one of the following reasons:

The adjustment did not result in reasonable values.
If an In-Place Inclinometer module is loaded: Total deflection values from In-Place Inclinometer module have not been received yet, they are out of date, or they are invalid.

The module is in alert status. One of the following reasons:

The parent is not running in Baselines processing mode.
There is no coordinate system other than the default system defined, that is, no positions could be computed.

Logging into the database and reporting

All actions, positions with displacements and reliabilities, and, optionally, total deflection values (tilt angle and length) of, and by, the High Rise module are logged into the Monitoring database. Thus, they are available to with the Trimble 4D Control Web application for further data visualization, analysis, and reporting.