Considering the drawback of checking and testing method indoor for the dynamic characteristic of photoelectric theodolite tracking system

a novel approach is proposed as evaluating the tracking performance of photoelectric theodolite in this paper. The equivalent mathematical model of tracking error of photoelectric theodolite is established. The equivalent sine signal is inputted to the equivalent model

and gets the output. The evaluation of tracking performance is obtained based on the statistical calculation of output. The paper gives the principle of building the equivalent model of tracking error

the identification equivalent method of model order and parameters

and the design approach of equivalent sine signal which is designed according to the theodolite checking and testing desire. Because of the dynamic characteristic of theodolite needing to inspirit fully by input signal for the accuracy parameters of model

the frequency of dynamic target is modulated continuously. The proposed equivalent model is verified by simulative and experimental studies. The estimate errors of equivalent model including average error

maximum error and standard error are 2.5872e-006°≈0°

1.8 and 1.1″. The result shows that the equivalent model meets the needs of evaluating the tracking performance of theodolite. The accurate evaluation of tracking performance is achieved.