Photogrammetric process for the three-dimensional monitoring of a moving object

A transloading system comprising:

• a railway track having a pair of rails;
• a rail car movable on said rails along said track and adapted to carry at least one load unit in the form of a container, a trailer or a semitrailer;
• a transloader in the form of a portal crane spanned across said track and movable with said rail car along said rails, said transloader having a lifter displaceable transversely to said rails and raisable and lowerable to engage one of said load units on said car or to deposit a load unit on said car;
• photogrammetric means for three-dimensional monitoring of a load unit on said car to determine position and location said load unit as a function of time, said photogrammetric means including:
• a plurality of cameras trained upon a certain location on said load unit,
• means for activating said cameras at time-spaced intervals, and acquiring with said cameras at said image-receiving locations respective images of said location,
• computer means connected to said cameras for determining from said images and changes in said images of successive time-spaced intervals with multi-image triangulation signaling, the position and location of said load unit as a function of time, and
• flash means for additionally illuminating said object during at least some of said time-spaced intervals and synchronously with acquisition of said images at said at least some of said time-spaced intervals;
• and
• means for controlling said transloader in response to the position and location of said load unit as a function of time determined by said computer means.