senseFly announces the eBee RTK, a fully integrated, fully compatible survey-grade mapping system. The eBee RTK, available in Q3, 2014, will offer surveying and engineering professionals a highly accurate and flexible mapping solution that works alongside their existing base stations and does not require any third-party software.
“This new survey-grade version of the eBee is the missing link our customers have been waiting for,” says Jean-Christophe Zufferey, C.E.O. of senseFly. “The eBee RTK offers surveying and engineering professionals the very highest positional accuracy, without the need for ground control points. It is compatible with customers’ existing base stations, and each mission’s entire workflow – including the transmission of GNSS corrections to the aircraft – is integrated within the system’s software.”
The new system offers survey-grade accuracy – Absolute orthomosaic / Digital Elevation Model accuracy of down to 3 cm (1.2 in) without the need for GCPs – meaning less time spent in the field and high precision in even the most inaccessible areas.
It also enables a fully integrated workflow – the eBee RTK’s supplied flight planning & control software (eMotion 2) connects to the base station and broadcasts correction data to the rover (eBee RTK) – no additional logger or third-party software required.
The eBee RTK is compatible with most leading brands of base station, working seamlessly alongside a surveyor’s existing portfolio of instruments.
The Bee RTK features an integrated GNSS receiver with RTK functionality. It flies, acquires images and lands autonomously. Plus the entire eBee RTK aircraft weighs just 0.7 kg (1.5 lbs) – minimising its power usage (optimising the drone’s flight time), allowing the aircraft to be hand launched (no accessories required), and ensuring the safety of people and objects on the ground.
The eBee RTK is supplied as standard with two software packages: eMotion 2 flight planning and control software; and Postflight Terra 3D professional photogrammetry software (powered by Pix4D).
With its maximum flight time of 40 minutes, the eBee RTK can photograph areas of up to 10 km2 (3.9 mi2) in a single flight. Its 16 MP still camera is capable of shooting aerial imagery at down to 2 cm (0.7 in) / pixel resolution. Once imported into Postflight Terra 3D, these images can be used to generate orthomosaics with accuracy of down to 3 cm (1.18 in) and digital elevation models of down to 5 cm (1.96 in).
3 ways of working with the eBee RTK
The eBee RTK can be used in either of three different ways to suit a particular user’s preference and access to in-country correction data networks:
- Real Time Kinematic (positioning the base station on a known position)
- Virtual base station (requires internet connection & VRS/Ntrip network subscription)
- Post processing (on-site or in the office later)
About Real Time Kinematic
Real Time Kinematic (or RTK) is a form of satellite navigation capable of enhancing the precision of position data provided by satellite-based positioning systems such as GPS, GLONASS and/or Galileo. RTK works by measuring the phase of the signal′s carrier wave, rather than the information content of the signal, and it requires just a single reference station to provide real-time corrections. In terms of its use with GPS position data, RTK is sometimes also referred to as Carrier-Phase Enhancement.