Precise Point Positioning (PPP) & Rural Survey Efficiency Gains

Fyfe’s survey team frequently works in some of the most remote, outback areas of Australia. Working a great distance from the infrastructure and services that are readily available when we work closer to towns and cities means a whole new set of challenges.

Even with conventional surveying techniques, there is often a lack of reference stations for real-time or post-processing global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) techniques.

Pinpointing the lay of the land

As Joe D’Aloia, Fyfe’s Survey Section Manager and chair of South Australia’s Surveying Board notes, the survey control, cellular coverage, and GNSS reference stations found in Australia’s coastal areas are sparce once inland.

Surveyors have always been quick to adopt new technologies — the mapping and surveying industry was among the first to utilise GPS technologies, for instance — and these technological advances have made a huge contribution to the field, allowing surveyors to reach greater levels of accuracy.

Fyfe understands the importance of new technologies and we know how these can help us deliver the best possible results to our clients. Whether it’s reality capture or drone aerial photogrammetry, we are committed to having the right tools and tech for the job at hand.

Precise point positioning

By adopting precise point positioning (PPP) — a positioning technique that uses all available GNSS constellations and eliminates GNSS system errors to deliver a precise level of accuracy from a single receiver — Fyfe has seen efficiency gains of up to 50 per cent on some surveying projects, and for our remote clients, this translate to both cost and time savings.

During Joe’s decades of experience using GNSS surveying techniques, he has always trialled new ways of making the process more efficient and more accurate and has consistently tested emerging surveying technologies.

Real-time kinematic (RTK) Survey Methods for example, cut the team’s surveying time from weeks to mere days on some remote projects. But this didn’t negate the need for a base or post-processing work. To combat this, while maintaining the high level of accuracy (+/- 50 millimetres) our clients demand, Fyfe adopted Trimble Centre Point RTX survey technology. The result for our clients is fast, efficient and precise surveying services, even in the middle of the outback.

If your company needs absolute precision and high-quality survey data, no matter how remote the site or region, please get in touch with our team today. Fyfe works Australia wide and our experience with cutting-edge survey solutions means results you can count on every time. 

Image credits: Bob Keane and Brian Hammonds