Dive summary:

• With a kilometer-long tunnel to build and happy with any opportunity to save on costs, Edmonton, Alberta, agreed to give a try to a robot designed by a professor at the University of Alberta.
• Prof. Ming Lu's robot follows tunnel-boring machines, dispenses with the need to shut down digging for five or six hours for a conventional in-route survey and measures alignment within 3 millimeters, reporting back about every 200 meters of tunneling.
• The system is called Virtual Laser Target Board (VLTB) and does not require gyroscopes, inclinometers or any orientation gauges for setting up on the job or for taking readings.

From the article:

VLTB uses a total station as a control robot to track and position the TBM automatically and continuously. ...