A total station is a modern optical instruments used in the Archaeological surveys and also to take reconstructionists company sizes of the screen. This is a combination of electronic theodolite ( transit) , an electronic distance meter ( EDM) and software running on a computer known as the external data collector.

With a total of one station in May to determine the angle and distance away from the instrument points to be surveyed. With the help of trigonometry and triangulation, angle and distance that can be used to calculate the actual position coordinates ( X, Y, and Z or northing, and elevation east) of the survey points, or points unknown position of the instrument, in terms of absolute.

The data can be downloaded from the external transit to computer software applications and will produce a map of research area.

Some total stations also have a GPS interface which combines two technologies to exploit the advantages of both ( GPS - does not need line of sight between the measured points; Traditional Total Station - high-precision measurements, especially in the vertical axis compared with GPS) and reduce the consequences of any lack of technology ( GPS - poor accuracy in the vertical axis and lower accuracy without a long period of employment; Total Station - need each other, and observations should be made more than one pathway or known to each other by 2 or more known points) .

Most modern total station instruments to measure angles with electro-optical means perfect digital scanning a bar code engraved on the glass-cylinder or a disc spinning in the instrument. The best quality total stations are able to measure the bottom corner of Arc 0, 5 seconds. Cheap " construction grade" total station can measure the angle usually for 5 or 10 arc-seconds.

Distance measurements carried out with microwave or infrared Modulated signal operator, which is produced by a small solid-state emitters in optical instruments' s path, and for the sake off from the object to be measured. Modulation patterns in the signal return is read and interpreted by an onboard computer in the total station. Distance is determined by the emitting and receiving some frequency, and determine the number rounded to the target wavelengths for each frequency. Most total stations use a purpose-built glass Porro prism as the reflector for the EDM signal, and can measure distances to several miles, but some instruments are " reflectorless" , and can measure the distance to each object that is lighter in color, for several hundred yards. Total Station is a typical EDM can measure distances accurate to about 3 millimeters or 1 / 1000th of the foot.

Some modern total station is the ' robot' allows the operator to control the instrument from a distance via remote control. This eliminates the need for an assistant staff member to hold the reflector prism through which to be measured. The operator holds the reflector her personal and total control of the station instrument observed line.