Transverse Adjustment for Observations from Modern Survey Instrumentation

Abstract

Compass (Bowditch's) rule and Crandall's method (the “least squares” solution, in many coordinate geometry programs) are commonly used to adjust traverses for construction and land survey applications. The assumptions made to derive either of those methods do not match today's instrumentation, particularly modern distance‐measuring equipment. Presented is an algorithm, based on the idea by George W. Tuttle, a contemporary of Crandall, which adjusts a closed traverse with results very much like those from a minimum variance solution, also presented, but without the complexity of computation. Both methods, which apportion corrections based upon the accuracies of observations, are compared to both compass and and Crandall's solutions, using data the accuracies of which are comparable to those of modern instrumentation.