APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING VEHICLE WHEEL ALIGNMENT MEASUREMENTS FROM THREE DIMENSIONAL WHEEL POSITIONS AND ORIENTATIONS

Apparatus and method for determining the alignment of a wheel of a vehicle includes mounting a known optical target to a wheel on the vehicle, the known optical target having a plurality of optical elements, each optical element having at least one straight edge disposed on a background, obtaining at least one video image of the optical target, estimating from the video image of the optical target the characteristics in said video image of a plurality of lines corresponding to projections onto the video image of the straight edges of the optical elements, and determining from the estimates of the characteristics the alignment of the wheel. A similar target for determining the position of a runway on which the vehicle is positioned is also disclosed.