Ott Consulting Inc. recently invested in a major upgrade to our land surveying technology by purchasing a cutting-edge survey base station. What is a base station in surveying? A base station is a GPS receiver that collects GPS measurements at a known location. The antenna’s location is determined very accurately (to within a few centimeters or less) by surveying methods. A base station provides reference data that can be used to increase the accuracy of GPS data collected in the field.
One of the major enhancements of our new technology is moving from only 2 constellations to the ability to receive signals from 4 constellations (BeiDou, GLONASS, GPS and Galileo). This major upgrade doubles the number and quality of the signals. The other benefit is the ability to perform a static solution simultaneously with a normal RTK collected point. This provides an independent check within seconds to verify the point is correct in parallel and real-time.
When surveying in difficult terrain or thickly wooded areas we can gather a point in a matter of seconds and be confident the location is accurate. As you might imagine, this provides a substantial increase in productivity in difficult environments. Combine that with our upgraded rover that uses 4 multi-constellation engines, and we can collect more data in a shorter amount of time with improved accuracy.
We are surveying at multiple sites per day and the fast setup time is a huge advantage. With previous equipment, we struggled to collect data in thickly wooded areas. Collecting data in wooded areas is no longer an issue.
The internal post processing is extremely robust and available immediately. All of these improvements have provided a sizeable boost in productivity which is a huge benefit to our clients.
Jeffrey L. Ott, P.E., M.B.A., President
