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of computer limitations. The strip triangulation was originally programmed
(1953) for the IBM 650 which contained a 2000-word drum. Later the program
was used with a simulator on the IBM 1620. Increasing use of analytical
triangulation shown by the demand for copies of the program required fur
ther revision and its large scale production. A FORTRAN version with a
complete description is given in Schut (1973).
Duane Brown, earlier an associate of H. Schmid, has made major
contributions to the analytical treatment of aerotriangulation as also in
various engineering problems. Brown's principal contributions are the
following: (a) Treatment of all orientation parameters as either known or
unknown; (b) Solution of normal equations achieved by partitioning their
matrix to separate the orientation elements and ground points; (c) The
method of introducing ground control points and the air-station parameters
with appropriate weights, thus making it possible to include auxiliary data
without, however, disturbing the basic mathematical model; and (d) De
velopment of a new mono-comparator which works on the principle of self
calibration (Brown 1976).
Certain important contributions were made at Cornell University
under the guidance of Arthur McNair by Anderson (1964) and Mikhail (1963)
in developing the Triplet method (Anderson and McNair 1966). In this
method the rigid elemental unit for the strip or sub-block formation is
obtained by using three consecutive photographs (hence the name Triplet).
Each triplet is overlapped with the adjacent one. The method was adapted
for official use and yielding good results by the US Coast and Geodetic
Survey (currently NOS, NOAA) (Keller and Tewinkel 1966).
Through the group studies on Analytical Block Triangulation spon
sored by ISP Commission III during 1964-68 it has been shown (Ackermann
1968; Ghosh et. al 1968) that (1) Excessive sidelap (e.g., 60% as against
20%) does not yield much improved accuracy in block adjustment; (2) Con
trol in the periphery of a block (at least in the corners) would greatly
improve the accuracy of block triangulation; (3) Additional auxiliary
data as additional control in the central area of the block would also
improve the accuracy; (4) The precision is practically independent of the
block size but is directly related to the available control, its quality
and distribution.
By the end of the 1960s, we reach a stage w T hen simultaneous ana
lytical block triangulation reached a level of maturity. Comparators
(both mono- and stereo-) of various manufactures and designs came on the
market, powerful computers were available and usable economically as well
as complex and refined programs for computations and adjustments were
developed. The simultaneous procedures known also as "Bundles" method were
improved and adopted by many organizations (Matos 1971, Wong and
Elphingstone 1972, Schenk 1972) and at numerous centers in Germany,
Finland, Italy, Canada and the USA. In spite of these developments, how
ever, the method of independent models remains very popular and is general
ly found to be more cost-effective. In this, the solution of the normal
equation system has been found to be critical as far as the preparation of
the computer programs is concerned. A direct method by using submatrices
as units and a Choleskv solution was adopted finally. This method has
been called Hyper Cholesky (abbr. Hychol) and it has proved to be suitable