Lately we have been experimenting a lot with drones equipped with RTK GNSS receivers.
In our setup we used North Surveying RTKite receivers together with Pixhawk flight controllers.
This is a short video with fully automatic flight of 2 drones using RTK GPS. Initial distance between drones was 2 meters, vertical separation 2 meters:
We also conducted a lot of flights to test real-life precision of RTK-equipped drones.
Our test scenario was pretty simple - in take-off in automatic mode, horizontal movement of 10 meters, return to home and land.
We have compiled a table of measurements which can be found below.
It is pretty clear that in RTK Lock mode drones have very high precision. The precision can be even better – we didn’t tune PIDs and the wind was quite high, so the drones had a little drift just before touchdown.
With the RTK base station switched off, drones had precision similar to usual GNSS receivers, perhaps a little bit better because RTKite is L1/L2 receiver.
Test | Ublox GPS receiver | RTK Copter 1 w/o base | RTK Copter 1 | RTK Copter 2 | RTK Copter 3 |
1 | 1.20 | 2.00 | 0.15 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
2 | 4.00 | 0.80 | 0.15 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
3 | 3.50 | 1.50 | 0.10 | 0.4 | 0.05 |
4 | 2.40 | 1.00 | 0.05 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
5 | 2.90 | 0.90 | 0.15 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
6 | 0.90 | 1.50 | 0.10 | 0.25 | 0.3 |
7 | 1.50 | 1.70 | 0.10 | 0.4 | 0.35 |
8 | 2.40 | 1.40 | 0.60 | 0.3 | 0.15 |
9 | 2.10 | 1.70 | 0.20 | 0.7 | 0.2 |
10 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 0.20 | 0.2 | 0.15 |
11 | 0.50 | 1.20 | 0.00 | 0.3 | 0.25 |
12 | 1.00 | 1.40 | 0.05 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
13 | 0.50 | 1.50 | 0.15 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
14 | 0.40 | 1.80 | 0.20 | 0.45 | 0.4 |
15 | 1.50 | 1.30 | 0.15 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
16 | 0.70 | 2.10 | 0.30 | 0.5 | 0.15 |
17 | 2.00 | 1.70 | 0.15 | 0.45 | 0.15 |
18 | 1.80 | 1.70 | 0.20 | 0.25 | 0.1 |
19 | 1.30 | 2.40 | 0.05 | 0.35 | 0.25 |
20 | 1.45 | 1.80 | 0.30 | 0.4 | 0.15 |
Max deviation | 4.00 | 2.40 | 0.60 | 0.70 | 0.40 |
Avg deviation | 1.70 | 1.52 | 0.17 | 0.37 | 0.25 |
A word of caution for everyone eager to use RTK receiver as the main one connected to the autopilot and used for navigation, not only for geotagging - we found that in situations when RTK receivers loose RTK lock, the autopilot can suddenly get very different coordinates. This may cause the autopilot can send the drone in an unpredictable direction. This is especially dangerous when flying at low altitudes.
We are currently working on this issue together with North Surveying support to assure smooth transitions between different RTK receiver modes.
For any inquiries regarding the RTK system, feel free to drop us a PM or e-mail us at ugcs@ugcs.com
More information on our ground station software UgCS can be found at www.ugcs.com
Good luck and safe flights,
UgCS Team
Comments
Dear Leonard, thank you for the insight. As we are RTK experts but not UAV experts, we have this recurring question with our users. In fact that the GNSS loses and regains RTK solution is not an issue per se, however, as the solution appears to "jump" as it is not averaged or smoothed in any way like the L1 single GPS do, it presents an unpleasant behaviour for RTK only UAVs., as the changes, as you mention are indeed instantaneous instead of gradual, as they do on averaged solutions towards the EKF.
Cheers!
Very nice!!
It is worth keeping in mind that for integration into the EKF it is probably easier to detect and handle an instantaneous change in position than a gradual change in position when you go from RTK to normal GPS.
If there is an obvious change in state that the autopilot can read then the EKF can reset the new position without any glitch taking place.
Thank you for the video Kistaps, looks great! And yes, I think the issue is just a matter of fine tuning and ensure the data link, woking on that.
If you want to know more about the GNSS RTK RTKite receivers, take a look:
http://gnssrtkmodule.com/
http://northsurveying.com/
Cheers!
I think this comment is not needed :