The Trimble RTX GNSS corrections technology can now achieve horizontal accuracies of better than two centimeters, according to Trimble.
Start-up times, commonly referred to as convergence, have also improved.
(Photo: Trimble)
Users can now achieve full accuracy in less than 15 minutes, and as fast as one minute in select areas where RTX Fast network infrastructure is available, the company added.
This performance is achievable using Trimble’s premier correction service, CenterPoint RTX, delivering RTK-level accuracy outside traditional Virtual Reference Station (VRS) networks, considered the gold standard for high-accuracy corrections.
Trimble’s RTX network is available throughout most of the world, with the RTX-Fast network coverage available in select geographies in the U.S., Canada and throughout most of Europe when using Trimble RTX compatible GNSS receivers.
Trimble RTX provides a satellite-delivered correction source. In addition, corrections are available via an Internet or cellular connection, adding to its versatility.
With satellite-delivered Trimble RTX corrections, users can perform a variety of positioning fieldwork in some of the most remote locations, without relying on traditional ground-based VRS networks or a local RTK base station to receive high-accuracy positioning data.
By powering on an RTX-capable receiver or display, customers can start working quickly with only a minimal convergence period, Trimble said. As long as users have line of sight to the sky they can work freely without being constrained by the geographic boundaries of a VRS network.
Offering a suite of correction services, Trimble RTX provides users the flexibility to choose the level of accuracy to suit their application needs from meter to centimeter level. It is designed for a variety of applications including agriculture, survey, mapping, construction, automotive and any location-based service that could benefit from greater precision.
Trimble RTX also powers Trimble xFill technology, a feature that enables RTK and VRS users to continue working if their primary correction stream is not available. xFill, delivered via satellite, “fills in” for RTK corrections in the event of temporary radio or Internet connection outages. As a result, users can experience fewer interruptions and less downtime.
“Trimble RTX performance and reliability are changing the positioning game for users who never considered a satellite-delivered correction service for applications traditionally requiring RTK-level accuracy,” said Patricia Boothe, vice president of Trimble’s Advanced Positioning Division. “Trimble RTX offers a global solution delivering similar performance to VRS where terrestrial networks are not available.”
Subscriptions are available through Trimble’s Authorized Business Partners or Trimble’s online store.
Trimble announced today a new version of its CenterPoint RTX correction service that delivers convergence to 4-centimeter horizontal accuracy in less than 5 minutes. The service is designed for a variety of precision agriculture operations in Central and Western Europe, and is available for use with the Trimble CFX-750 display.
Trimble CenterPoint RTX delivers highly accurate GNSS corrections via satellite without the need for traditional reference station RTK infrastructure, mobile data plans or additional on-machine hardware. The GNSS-enabled correction service delivers repeatable, real-time high-accuracy positions for land preparation, planting, harvesting and other high-precision farming applications.
Enabled by the new version of RTX technology, RTX version 5.0, the fast convergence time is the result of a new region-specific atmospheric model and a dense ground reference station network. Growers will realize an approximate 80 percent improvement in RTX convergence time as compared to the RTX-standard service that typically provides 30-minute convergence time, Trimble said.
Delivered via a new satellite broadcast covering western and central Europe, the new service will be available in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France,Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Western Poland, Southern Sweden and the United Kingdom.
“We are continually advancing our Trimble RTX technology to improve productivity in the field,” said Patricia Boothe, general manager of Trimble Positioning Services. “Faster initialization times allow growers to start working more quickly, freeing up time to focus on other farm operations. No other satellite-delivered correction service today can offer better than 4 centimeter accuracy in less than 5 minutes.”
The 2014 Trimble Dimensions User Conference is being held in Las Vegas this week. Photo: Trimble
With more than 4,000 attendees, this year’s Trimble Dimensions User Conference was the largest ever and, I must say, a well-organized event chock full of technical content — enough to squelch the most intense geospatial hunger pangs you might have.
One could write a book on all the technology and market segments that Trimble is pursuing and offering solutions for. In addition to a wide range of GNSS, geospatial, construction, control, and data management systems previously offered, Trimble boasted a USB stick full of press releases with new product and service announced at Dimensions. So, the challenge is deciding what to write about without writing a little bit about everything.
After my first day at Dimensions, it became clear to me what I needed to do. Among the many product and service announcements was a new GNSS correction service named Viewpoint RTX. While I’ve tried to stay up to speed on Trimble’s various GNSS real-time correction services, this one was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I decided I needed to get a solid grip on the range of real-time GNSS correction services that Trimble offers because the picture was getting fuzzier, at least to me, with each new real-time correction service introduced. It used to be pretty simple to decipher; not so much any longer. So I had a conversation with Patty Boothe, general manager of Positioning Services at Trimble. Patty, a 15-year Trimble veteran, was appointed GM of the newly formed group three years ago. Here’s the low-down on the services.
Remember, Trimble acquired the land portion of OmniSTAR’s business a few years ago. For years, OmniSTAR has been one of the two dominant commercial satellite-based, real-time GNSS correction services (the other being John Deere’s Starfire service, as well as new entrant Terrastar). The OmniSTAR acquisition was Trimble’s entry into the satellite-based, real-time GNSS correction services business. Since then, Trimble has introduced the RTX (not to be confused with RTK) range of GNSS correction services. You might say that OmniSTAR and RTX are competitive services within Trimble. They are, to a certain extent, and I’ll attempt to clarify that below.
Following is a list of Trimble’s real-time GNSS correction services, starting with the OmniSTAR services:
OmniSTAR VBS: Satellite-based, real-time submeter service. The VBS service has been made obsolete largely by free public satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) such as WAAS/EGNOS/MSAS/GAGAN/SDCM. It is still used in geographic regions where free public SBAS don’t exist, primarily South America, Central and Southern Africa, and Australia. GPS-only service. Requires single-frequency receiver (L1).
OmniSTAR XP: Satellite-based, real-time 15-cm service based on Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) technology and delivered to users on the ground via OmniSTAR’s geosynchronous satellite network. GPS-only service. Requires dual frequency (L1 and L2).
OmniSTAR HP: Satellite-based, real-time 10-cm service based on OmniSTAR’s reference station network and delivered to users on the ground via OmniSTAR’s geosynchronous satellite network. GPS-only service. Requires dual frequency (L1 and L2).
OmniSTAR G2: Satellite-based, real-time 10-cm service based on Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) technology and delivered to users on the ground via OmniSTAR’s geosynchronous satellite network. GPS+GLONASS service. Requires dual frequency, dual constellation (L1 and L2).
To use OmniSTAR services, one must have an OmniSTAR-enabled GNSS receiver. There are a several receiver manufacturers that support OmniSTAR GNSS correction services, such as NovAtel and Hemisphere GNSS, in addition to Trimble.
After, or at nearly the same time, Trimble acquired OmniSTAR, the company launched its RTX GNSS correction service. RTX’s infrastructure consists of ~110 GNSS reference stations around the world working to create high-precision corrections on a near global scale. The first significant differentiator is that Trimble RTX services are only offered on Trimble GNSS receivers, so you’ve got to be “all in” with Trimble to utilize RTX.
Viewpoint RTX: Internet-based (notice I didn’t write satellite-based), real-time submeter service. This is a new service introduced this week at Dimensions for the new Leap GNSS receiver and the Geo7 GNSS handheld. GPS+GLONASS service. Requires single-frequency receiver (L1).
The above are the three RTX services. There are some options for the above, but let’s talk about satellite-based GNSS correction services for a minute.
The advantage of satellite correction services is that, because GNSS corrections are delivered via satellite, your receiver doesn’t need to be connected to the Internet or have any other sort of terrestrial radio communications to receive data from the GNSS reference station(s). Because delivery is by satellite, you could be in the middle of a desert with no mobile phone coverage within 100 km, and you could still use OmniSTAR or RTX services. The only requirement is that your receiver needs to have direct, continuous line-of-sight to the OmniSTAR/RTX geosynchronous satellite (both services use the same geosynchronous satellites to broadcast the corrections).
The primary disadvantage of OmniStar and RTX services is the “convergence” time required to achieve the stated accuracy service levels. With the exception of OmniSTAR VBS (sub-meter), Viewpoint RTX (sub-meter) and Rangepoint RTX (50-cm) services, the OmniSTAR and RTX centimeter and decimeter services require tens of minutes of initialization time to converge to the stated accuracy. For example, if you want to use the 4-cm Centerpoint RTX service, you may have wait up to 30 minutes for it to converge to 4-cm accuracy.
Now, there are a couple of ways to reduce the convergence time:
Start on a known point. For example, if you’re using Centerpoint RTX on a tractor for planting and you shut down for the evening, you can start it up the next morning (assuming you didn’t move the tractor), and it will converge nearly immediately.
Trimble offers a fast convergence option ($) in some geographic areas where it augments RTX with local RTK reference stations. Currently, Trimble offers this service in five U.S. “corn belt” states.
For OmniStar XP, HP and G2 services, the only way to reduce convergence time is number one above, start on a known point.
It’s important to note that all of the centimeter and decimenter satellite-based services described above are based on real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technology, which is different than RTK technology. The fundamental difference is that real-time PPP technology relies on a global, distributed network of reference stations. For example, Trimble has ~110 reference stations to cover the globe (mostly) with its RTX service. On the other hand, RTK requires a much more dense network of GNSS reference stations. For example, in Washington State there are ~100 GNSS reference stations that comprise the state-wide RTK network.
Lastly, Trimble offers a hybird RTK/RTX service called XFill. The idea is that for RTK users who lose communications to their RTK base or RTK network can use the Centerpoint RTX as a “seamless” back-up, maintaining RTK-level accuracy (1-2cm) for the first five minutes of RTX service, and then degrading to Centerpoint RTX accuracy after 20 minutes. Trimble reports there is no convergence time when transitioning from RTK to RTX, like you would if you were starting RTX right away. Standard XFill is included with certain Trimble RTK receivers and allows up to five minutes of RTX satellite time. Last month at the INTERGEO conference, Trimble introduced Expanded XFill which is a subscription service for those users who want more than five minutes of RTX time. For those users, Patty said that users can buy blocks of RTX time starting at 10 hours.
So, you might ask how Trimble handles the horizontal datum differences between RTK and RTX since they are likely not referenced to the same horizontal datum. For example, in the US, Trimble VRS RTK infrastructure is typically referenced to NAD83/2011 while Trimble RTX is referenced to ITRF08. There’s about 1 meter difference between the two. After finding the correct Trimble person, he said that Trimble does a 3-parameter local shift (dX, dY, dZ) on the fly when in RTK mode so that when there’s a transition from RTK to RTX, the horizontal datum difference is already resolved.
A by-product of Trimble’s ~110 global GNSS reference station network is a real-time, world-wide TEC (Total Electron Content) map. Since real-time PPP GNSS correction services (and public SBAS like WAAS/EGNOS/MSAS/GAGAN) rely on accurate models of the TEC in the ionosphere to account for the GNSS measurement delay, real-time TEC maps give users an indication of how the ionosphere’s TEC is behaving. This sort of map is particularly useful in attempting to predict the understand single frequency receivers using services such as public SBAS, OmniStar VBS, and Viewpoint RTX. The next time you here about an impending solar storm, take a look a the map using this link and see the TEC hotspots around the globe. Notice the more intense activity near the geomagnetic equator.
TEC map from Trimble’s ~110 global GNSS receivers. Photo: Trimble
Shifting gears slightly, at the conference, Trimble also introduced a new mobile phone GNSS add-in product called Leap, which uses the Viewpoint RTX service.
Trimble Leap GNSS Receiver with a Samsung Galaxy Phone. Photo: Trimble
Applanix, a mobile mapping and positioning company, is making the Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service available across its entire airborne mapping portfolio. Applanix is a Trimble Company.
Using the Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service, Applanix will be able to deliver these benefits to the aerial survey marketplace:
High accuracy — better than 10 cm RMS horizontal after convergence
Speed and low cost — no need for setting up base stations, no need to wait for delivery of public-domain ephemeris data
Simplicity — deal directly with Trimble (no third-party involvement)
More uptime and reliability — use Trimble’s professionally managed, highly maintained private network
Ease of use — there is no additional hardware to purchase, integrate or maintain
Fast and reliable convergence — 30 minutes or less to full accuracy
The announcement was made at Trimble’s China Dimensions User Conference. The CenterPoint RTX service for Applanix airborne mapping products is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2013.
“The Applanix aerial mapping portfolio is trusted throughout the aerial mapping community to provide highly accurate position and orientation information for directly georeferencing camera and sensor data,” said Joe Hutton, Director of Airborne Products at Applanix. “By integrating the Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service, we are maintaining our position at the forefront of accuracy, robustness, and high efficiency in airborne mapping. The CenterPoint RTX correction service gives Applanix products the ability to achieve accuracy required for many types of mapping projects in real time and post-mission, all without the need for base stations – an industry first.”
Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service is a GPS, GLONASS and QZSS enabled correction service built on Trimble RTX technology. It provides high-accuracy GNSS positioning without the use of traditional reference station-based differential RTK infrastructure.
The solution is also compatible with the Applanix POSPac software to achieve the same level of orientation accuracy as when using base stations, all without the need to have an Internet connection or wait for precise ephemeris data to be available.
Trimble announced today that its Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service will be available to survey and land administration professionals around the world. Powered by Trimble RTX technology, the GPS, GLONASS and QZSS enabled correction service can offer better than 4 centimeter (1.5 inch) repeatable horizontal accuracy, without requiring the use of a base station or local VRS network.
The announcement was made today at Intergeo 2013, being held this week in Essen, Germany.
In addition to previously announced Agriculture devices, the CenterPoint RTX correction service is now compatible with the Trimble ProXRT for Land Administration and the Trimble R10 GNSS receivers. The worldwide subscription service is expected to be available to geospatial users in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Delivered via L-band satellite, CenterPoint RTX is designed for geospatial professionals who are not using RTK as the primary correction source. Advantageous in remote areas that lack local infrastructure and/or cellular coverage, the corrections are delivered directly to the GNSS receiver. No additional hardware, including radios, antennas, or even cellular data plans, is required to use the correction service.
“By combining global coverage, fast initialization times, and high-accuracy correction data, Trimble CenterPoint RTX offers geospatial professionals unprecedented operating freedom,” said Patricia Boothe, general manager of Trimble’s Positioning Services Division. “We are committed to offering field-proven positioning corrections to address a variety of users’ needs across applications and markets, starting with agriculture and now reaching into the geospatial markets.”
The preview version of Trimble’s CenterPoint RTX post-processing service, enabling GNSS observations using available Galileo and BeiDou MEO satellites.
Trimble announced today a Preview version of its CenterPoint RTX post-processing service, enabling GNSS observations using available Galileo and BeiDou Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites. Powered by Trimble RTX technology, the free CenterPoint RTX post-processing service provides better than centimeter level positions.
The announcement was made today at ION GNSS 2013 Conference and Exhibition.
The existing CenterPoint RTX post-processing site uses data from the GPS, GLONASS, and QZSS satellite systems. Through a link accessible from the post-processing website, users can enter a Preview site and derive positions that also use data from available open service Galileo and BeiDou MEO satellites.
“With the addition of Galileo and BeiDou MEO support, we offer researchers, scientists and academics the opportunity to evaluate and experiment with results from these evolving satellite constellations,” said Patricia Boothe, general manager of Trimble’s Positioning Services Division. “We are committed to continuing to advance CenterPoint RTX post-processing and the underlying Trimble RTX technology to enable ever higher accuracy positioning solutions.”
Trimble CenterPoint RTX post-processing is a cloud-based service accessed through www.TrimbleRTX.com. Users around the globe can upload static GNSS observation data and receive positioning corrections calculated in the well-defined International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRF) 2008 reference frame. The post-processed solution can be transformed to a variety of regional reference frames by selecting a coordinate system and tectonic plate.
Trimble announced today that its high-accuracy, satellite-delivered CenterPoint RTX correction service is now available for farmers in Latin America.
Trimble CenterPoint RTX can deliver better than 3.8-centimeter (1.5-inch) accuracies in real time without the use of traditional reference station RTK infrastructure, the company said. Initially, the CenterPoint RTX satellite-delivered correction service covered approximately a 1.8 billion-acre swath of central North America, extending from Canada into northern Mexico. The new coverage area has been expanded to include all of Mexico, Central America, and South America, where farmers can use the GNSS correction service for cultivating, planting, pest and nutrient management, harvesting and water management.
"The expanded coverage of Trimble's satellite-delivered CenterPoint RTX service into Latin America further extends our broad portfolio of correction services, which also includes OmniSTAR VBS, HP, XP and G2; Trimble CenterPoint VRS; and the CenterPoint RTX service delivered via cellular communications," said Patricia Boothe, general manager of Trimble's Positioning Services Division. "By offering a suite of correction technologies and services, we can satisfy a variety of accuracy, delivery and budget requirements."
"We're committed to expanding the services and software applications that we provide to the global farming community. Increasing the coverage area for high-accuracy GNSS correction services for Trimble's agriculture customers around the world is an example," said Erik Arvesen, vice president of Trimble's Agriculture Division. "In 2011, we offered real-time, satellite-delivered corrections over a central swath of North America where it was well received. Now, farmers in Latin America can also benefit from CenterPoint RTX services to perform precision agriculture operations. Our customers want a broad range of solutions and with CenterPoint RTX, we're delivering those options."
Trimble CenterPoint RTX real-time corrections are satellite delivered directly to the GNSS receiver, so there are no additional costs for mobile data plans or hardware such as radios and antennas. The CenterPoint RTX service is compatible with the Trimble CFX-750 display, FmX integrated display, and the AG-372 GNSS receiver. The service is expected to be available by mid-July. For more information, visit www.trimble.com/agcorrectionservices.
