Global Positioning: GPS / GNSS
We’re not Licensed Surveyors nor Engineers, but those are our among our favorite people to work with. We gather data and share it; we don’t do boundaries.
We use top-grade L1/L2/L5 GNSS Recievers.
According to your accuracy needs, budget and location, we choose from RTK, Network RTK, PPK, and Static GNSS. We also do projects without high-grade geolocation.
We tie into NGS Benchmark Monuments with known coordinates given in UTM, Latitude / Longitude, or State Plane Coordinates. We also glean accurate positional data from static observations on site when there is no benchmark nearby.
Ground Control Points
Even if our drone is equipped with an RTK GNSS receiver and a calibrated camera, our pilots use ground control points redundancy. Normally, we will gather position data with a base/rover RTK setup for each ground control point, which is also an aerial target, shown below. In the case of a non-RTK drone, these coordinates are used directly in map processing. With an RTK drone, these targets are used as checkpoints to ensure an accurate map.
The setting and retrieval of GCPs gets some boots on the ground out at your site. Lots of information can be gleaned from walking the site and we include any special notes we think may help our clients on their project.
We like to walk the site. We want to work with you for a long time and we know some of the best data comes from boots on the ground. We try to share as much information as possible from our site visit, and sometimes the human eye will catch the most important thing.
Photo-stitching software pins down the map at Ground Control Points, shown with blue markers, to minimize error throughout.
Zoomed-in Detail from the Photo Above.
We painted the pink butterfly to act as a fast aerial target around a ground control point.
The photo is taken from 200 ft and has a Ground Sampling Distance of 2cm.
Wagstaff at Pentz Road, Paradise, CA