The invention relates to a method for positioning an end (19) of a first pipe section (14) relative to an end (20) of a second pipe section (18), the method comprising: (a) prepositioning the end (19) of the first pipe section (14) near the end (20) of the second pipe section (18), defining a connection area (51) comprising the respective ends (19, 20) of the first and second pipe sections (14, 18); (b) performing a measuring process comprising a plurality of measuring steps, each measuring step comprising: (b1) moving a sensing device (86) to a location (89a, 89b, 89c) near the connection area (51); (b2) automatically measuring the location (89a, 89b, 89c) of the sensing device (86) relative to a reference location (87); (b3) automatically measuring point positions (98a, 98b, 98c, 98d) of points on the ends (19, 20) of the first and second pipe sections (14, 18) relative to the sensing device location (89a, 89b, 89c); (c) determining a target position of the end (19) of the first pipe section (14) relative to the end 20) of the second pipe section (18) on the basis of the measured point positions (98a, 98b, 98c, 98d); and (d) moving at least one of the first and second pipe sections (14, 18) in order to obtain the target position.