Performance evaluation of a typical low-cost multi-frequency multi-GNSS device for positioning and navigation in agriculture – Part 1: Static testing

Abstract This paper evaluates and compares the static performance of low-cost and legacy geodetic multi-frequency multi-GNSS positioning device (PD) in terms of the GNSS signal strength, RTK (Real-Time-Kinematic) availability and positioning accuracy, and time to first fix (RTK-TTFF/TTRF), which were measured for short and medium baselines (SBL and MBL) with different receiver resets and GNSS signal obstructions. The evaluation results indicated that the low-cost PDs, which were combined from a single u-blox ZED-F9P receiver and multiple low-cost GNSS antennas, performed at almost the same accuracy level of the legacy PDs and were superior in term of the RTK-TTFF/TTRF performance. The low-cost PDs could track satellites of four GNSS constellations with high signal strength of about 50dB-Hz resulting in almost full-time availability of RTK-fixed solution, and millimeter-level and centimeter-level accuracy of the horizontal positioning for the SBL and MBL, respectively. Furthermore, the low-cost PDs could acquire and reacquire RTK-fixed mode in less than 12 seconds and 4 second, respectively, and hold for any significant time in static applications.