Roke Manor Research Maps Out Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness for Ordnance Survey

Roke Manor Research the electronics research and development business owned by Siemens has recently won a contract through a competitive tender process in the EC journal for one hundred units of their specialist (RTK) Real Time Kinematic Repeater Units. The units will provide positioning and precise real time error corrections for surveying anywhere in the UK.

The specially designed RTK Repeater Units will provide Ordnance Survey with extremely accurate measurements over the entire country in a simple, low cost unit that is compact enough to be stored in the surveyor’s car. The design of this unit is closely based on the LoCATe (Low Cost Asset Tracker) product family already under development at Roke Manor Research.

Previously, surveyors have only been able to receive localised error corrections from permanent GPS RTK reference stations within a range of up to 30km. To counter this, Ordnance Survey used a second GPS RTK receiver on site to act as a local reference centre. This however required two expensive pieces of equipment at all times in order to work accurately and there was a risk of the extra equipment being stolen or vandalised.

Ordnance Survey utilises a central server, which generates nationwide RTK correction data based on measurements from RTK reference stations. The RTK repeater unit will allow surveyors to obtain accurate position measurements, by enabling the data to be received and used in the field.

Using the new RTK repeater unit a surveyor will be able to work unaccompanied anywhere in Great Britain. Once on site the RTK Repeater Unit will receive accurate corrections for its location from Ordnance Survey’s central server and transmit them to the surveyor via a radio link. Since a radio link is used the surveyor will receive the real time positioning corrections even when he is out of GPRS network coverage.

The integration of Roke Manor Research’s technology and expertise and Ordnance Survey’s central server will provide precise surveying nationally with only one surveyor required per location. The overall benefits include increased efficiency, cost effectiveness and greater flexibility for the surveyors.