If you’re in the market for a survey UAV or drone, you’ll no doubt be knee-deep in technical specs as you try and evaluate different models (or even different components, if you’re building a UAV payload from scratch). But, what positioning technology is right for your UAV?
One of the things you will be evaluating is, of course, accuracy. Accuracy is important for two reasons. Firstly, you want your UAV to be where it’s supposed to be and secondly, you want to be able to accurately georeference the data you’re gathering with your payload. But (as you will no doubt have already discovered), accuracy isn’t as simple as looking for a number. You’ll have spotted various acronyms accompanying those numbers – GPS, PPK, RTK, and GCP most commonly, but you may also see GNSS thrown into the mix. In this article, we’ll explain what these acronyms mean – and what they mean for your UAV project.
What are GCPs?
GCP stands for Ground Control Points, and they are the most inexpensive method of ensuring your data is accurately georeferenced. They are physical targets that you place on the ground, and which you know the GNSS coordinates for. Once your UAV has finished its survey, those points can be used to reference the position of your UAV in the global frame.
The biggest drawback with GCPs is that they don’t help your UAV know its own position. GCPs only help provide your UAV with a general position reference. So GCPs aren’t any use if you want your UAV to fly pre-programmed flight plans. For that, you’ll need a GNSS-based solution like an INS.
GCPs can also be time consuming to use and cause additional difficulties at the post-processing stage.
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