Automated positioning systems designed to measure three-dimensional locations of objects are of paramount importance to flexible manufacturing applications. These systems should perform in an industrial environment, withstanding obstacles of solid objects and must be immune from external influences including changes in atmospheric conditions and surrounding noise. Automated positioning systems should also be free of mechanical contact and able to perform without having to establish a line-of-sight with the measured object. In this thesis, a novel design is proposed for the spatial measurement of the six degrees of freedom industrial robots and autonomous vehicles. Not only does the proposed system comply with the above characteristics, but it is also capable of achieving better resolutions than CCD cameras, easier to implement, safer than laser devices and more accurate than ultrasound systems.[...] / Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering