Robotic laser pointer apparatus and methods

A robotic laser-pointing apparatus, comprising:

• an instrument center;
• a first rotation axis, a second rotation axis, and a pointing axis having a known relationship to the instrument center;
• a laser source operative to provide a pointing-laser beam along the pointing axis;
• a pointing drive system operative to aim the pointing-laser beam by rotating the pointing axis about the instrument center in response to a pointing-direction control;
• focusing optics having a focusing-optics drive operative to focus the pointing-laser beam in response to a focusing-optics control;
• and
• one or more processors operative to:
• generate the pointing-direction control and the focusing-optics control in response to target-position information,
• compensate the pointing-direction control for any lack of mutual orthogonality of the first rotation axis and the second rotation axis, and
• compensate the pointing-direction control for any lack of mutual orthogonality of the second rotation axis and the pointing axis.

A robotic laser-pointing apparatus, comprising:

• an instrument center;
• a first rotation axis, a second rotation axis, and a pointing axis having a known relationship to the instrument center;
• a laser source operative to provide a pointing-laser beam along the pointing axis;
• a pointing drive system operative to aim the pointing-laser beam by rotating the pointing axis about the instrument center in response to a pointing-direction control;
• an electronic distance measurement (EDM) system comprising a measurement-beam source operative to emit a measurement beam along a measurement-beam path that intersects the instrument center;
• focusing optics having a focusing-optics drive operative to focus the pointing-laser beam in response to a focusing-optics control;
• and
• one or more processors operative to:
• generate the pointing-direction control and the focusing-optics control in response to target-position information, and
• correct for misalignment between the pointing axis and the measurement-beam path by applying a first correction to the pointing-direction control when the pointing-laser beam is aimed and by applying a second correction to the pointing-direction control when the measurement beam is aimed, wherein the laser source and the measurement-beam source are operated alternately.