In such cases, the lack of large residuals does not guarantee the
absence of gross errors, so that more sophisticated methods are required
such as those suggested by Grün (1978). By contrast, good multistation
configurations generally obviate the need for such analyses. The improved
geometry and increased redundancy means that all but the smallest gross errors
should be readily detectable from the residuals themselves, because an
object point imaging on three or more photographs will be associated with
at least three distinct basal planes (which will intersect at a point).
Random errors
Whereas accuuwCct/ is concerned with the discrepancy between the adopted
solution and the "true" solution, precision relates to the closeness of the
individual (corrected) observations to the adopted solution via the
mathematical model. Accuracy is difficult to assess with any certainty,
whereas the relatively small size (in comparision with aerial triangulation)
of close range photogrammetric systems allows the computation of all or part
of the dispersion (variance-covariance) matrix to indicate precision.
However, we must be careful in assessing what such estimates are relative
to. With aerial photography, in the final analysis we are relating the
photogrammetric measurements to a fixed geodetic co-ordinate system, and
the determination of the control points is considered to be of superior
quality to the photogrammetric measurements. In close range systems the
relative precision of control measurements may be more dubious (gross errors
also being a problem), and in several cases there may be no need to relate
our results to a fixed co-ordinate system.
true image position
erroneous image position
erroneous object \
position
¥irue object position
Fig. 3. On a pair of photographs an error in the image position along an
epipolar line will not be detected producing an erroneous object position
in the basal plane.