The Accuracy of RTK enabled Mobile Phones in RTK denied Areas

Abstract. Surveyors often encounter challenges when tasked with measuring points in regions where buildings disrupt satellite visibility. The precise surveying of points in these areas typically relies on employing total stations. This method effectively extends high precision from unaffected zones (where satellite visibility is assured) to those areas where disruption occurs due to buildings. Total stations achieve this by executing distance and angle measurements from a reference point coordinate to the location where satellite visibility is compromised. The process is notably time-consuming, thereby incurring significant costs. Moreover, the intricate nature of this surveying process necessitates specialized skills and expertise, contributing further to the overall expense. In this study, we investigate an approach based on RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) enabled mobile phones and photogrammetry to achieve the same. In principle, this approach has a similar philosophy. However, instead of working with a few points with good satellite visibility that are obtained by a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) rover, the procedure works with hundreds of observations with varying accuracy. Those accuracies depend on the satellite visibility. Each observation captures an image from the mobile phone together with the GNSS signal and its accuracy. Angle and distance measurements that traditionally are observed by a total station are retrieved by photogrammetry on the total image collection.