Using technology that determines your position has become fully integrated into our daily life, especially compared to -let’s say- 20 years ago. We use Google Maps or another navigation tool to lead us the way, allow Instagram suggestions to add the name of the café you’re having drinks at to appear with your new post, and let Tinder snap your location so you see singles closest to you. See? It’s in our day-to-day life, but none of them require centimetre accuracy. So when does that level of accuracy become important and how does the UNI-GR1 in combination with the UNI-RTK Premium network achieve that for you?
RTK and centimetre accuracy
Before we dive into what the mentioned UNI-RTK Premium network is, what it does and how you get access to it, let’s look at the basics first. ‘ Centimetre’ is probably a familiar length measure to you, but for those who work with inches: 1 centimetre is 0,393701 inch. You divide the length value by 2,54 to calculate inches.
Accuracy and precision are two words that -in general – have a similar meaning, but not when it comes to surveying! Accuracy indicates how close a measurement comes to the actual value, while precision refers to how close multiple surveyed points are to one another.
We have written an article on RTK before, so we’ll keep it short. Real-Time Kinematics is based on the use of reference stations and is a positioning method used for GNSS based surveying. GNSS receivers, such as our UNI-GR1, receive positioning signals from satellites and RTK correction data over radio or the internet. Both signals, GNSS and corrections, are added to an algorithm which then calculates a positioning solution.
Requiring centimetre accuracy
With the three location examples above, none of them require centimetre accuracy. You will not miss out on the love of your life if Tinder is 10 centimetres off. However, if you survey hereditary borders for city council, produce very intricate maps of laid pipes, or plant trees with just enough distance between them, being centimetre accurate becomes your goal.
You’ll get centimetre accurate by making use of a network such as our UNI-RTK Premium. It’s a border-free RTK network, currently consisting of over 2,250+ base stations globally. These base stations support GPS, Glonass, and progressively BeiDou, Galileo, and QZSS, which means satellites from all over the world work together to give you the best possible results. UNI-RTK Premium also works with any device that is able to receive RTK corrections in RTCM format over NTRIP, so you’re able to integrate it into your current equipment.
Meet accuracy demands easily
Whatever demands you, your colleagues, or your customers have when it comes to centimetre accuracy – RTK helps you meet those easily. (Help) produce detailed maps at the same time as you survey points and rely on the UNI-RTK Premium network for results that have the same accuracy as you have set. That’s all!
