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Task 2. Read and translate the text.

Text 2 Modern equipment in geodesy

The technology of surveying is constantly changing. It means
surveyors can now take measurements and report data with increased
speed and accuracy. Modern surveyors get to use the latest technology
to get their job done every day.

Todays most modern technology includes a combination of optics
- to roughly orient the device, dual selectable lasers, prodigious
amounts of memory to record tens of thousands of measurements, and

dozens of jobs simultaneously, response times of calculations in less
than a half second and accuracy rapidly approaching the parts per
billion range.

Surveyors use equipment like total stations (figure 8.1) to
electronically calculate distances 100’s of metres away, to centimetre
accuracy. Robotic versions are also available, allowing surveyors to

operate a total station by remote control. and total station equipment,
which measure the length and the angle between two points, an
obvious important surveying function. It is mounted on a tripod. It
then transmits an infrared signal to a prism. The signal is reflected

back to the total station. The time required for the signal to get to the
prism and back determines the distance from one point to the other.
This provides all of the data necessary to calculate that distance.

3D laser scanners (figure 8.2.) are used to understand and
interpret the shape of things such as buildings or land by collecting
clouds of points to create digital 3-D models. These instruments are
used by surveyors to provide data to architects to accurately visualise

the land they are going to build or design on.
Satellite positioning systems (figure 8.3.) allow the measurement
of features or points anywhere in the world, from space. The data

collected by these systems can be used to control large infrastructure
projects or provide the information for in-car navigation systems.
GIS software (figure 8.4.) is used to capture and analyse data to

create digital maps of areas. The high-tech software is used to create
programs such as google maps, used by over 100 million people a
month.

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