White Paper
Down to 1 cm (0.4 in) in drone survey accuracy
Tests in the USA and Switzerland prove that the WingtraOne mapping drone repeatedly reaches the best-in-class down to 1 cm (0.4 in) absolute accuracy.
Learn how the WingtraOne drone achieved this level of accuracy and what to do to get closer to these measures in your own surveys.
- Accuracy tests setup and results validation
- Sample data from more than 20 flights
- Factors influencing accuracy
- How to achieve centimer-level accuracy in your next project
Down to 1 cm (0.4 in) drone surveying accuracy is achievable under optimal conditions, on hard surfaces, using high-accuracy checkpoints combining total station and static long time GNSS measurements or well-established (>3 h logging) base stations.
Professional expertise and established infrastructure are critical to prove these results. In Switzerland, we used a set of checkpoints from the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry of ETH Zurich. For research purposes, the institute defined the location of these points within 2 mm (0.08 in) horizontal and 4 mm (0.16 in) vertical accuracy. Their accuracy is based on a high-accuracy network combining total stations and static long-time GNSS measurements comprising measurements of a CORS station that is part of the national network. These measurements are then integrated into a stochastic model that takes into account the accuracy of each device.
In the US (Phoenix), Wingtra used two HiPer V GNSS antennas from Topcon. One was set up as a base station and was logging for around three hours. The second was set up as a rover using the correction data from the local base to measure the checkpoints. Due to the small baseline between the rover and the base station the coordinates were defined at a subcentimeter level relative to the base.
