Effectiveness of real time kinematic global navigation satellite system suveying (RTK GNSS)

The use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is becoming increasingly widespread, especially in the science industry. The effect of additional GNSS systems such as the Russian GLONASS system in combination with the American Global Positioning System (GPS)is investigated in this research. \n \nRTK surveying is an effective means of surveying for a range of applications, which delivers accurate coordinates to the user in real time. It is expected that in less than two years there will be over 70 satellites in operation from the major satellite systems, GPS, GLONASS, COMPASS and GALILIO. \n \nThe current operation of RTK GNSS relies largely on research and knowledge obtained from the use of RTK GPS over the last decade. An increase in the number of satellites available will theoretically lead to a higher accuracy and precision, and more effective and efficient surveying tool. \n \nTesting has been undertaking to determine how a variation in the number of GLONASS satellites affect the accuracy, precision and Time to First Fix (TTFF) of a RTK GNSS receiver. The results of this testing suggest that additional satellites do lead to a shorter TTFF, which is backed up by previous research conducted in this area. It also shows that RTK GNSS is at all time high in accuracy when the initialisation integrity is maintained. The precision of RTK GNSS is also quite high when initialisation integrity is maintained, however the results show that the addition of GLONASS satellites does not improve these figures. In fact, the addtion of one or two GLONASS satellites often has an adverse effect, and results in a lesser accuracy and precision. \n \nThis research shows that RTK GNSS is an accurate and precise tool for surveying if the initialisation integrity is maintained. The addition and variation in the number of GLONASS satellites does not improve accuracy and precision, however results agree with past research thata it will lead to a more robust and reliable solution.