The latest development of a state-wide GNSS network-based RTK system in Australia

This paper describes the latest developments of an Australian Research Council (ARC) project involving researchers from RMIT University, UNSW, University of Melbourne, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Lands (DoL). The aim of the project is to enhance the utility of continuously operating reference station (CORS) networks in the states of Victoria and New South Wales by developing regional atmospheric correction models to support high-precision, real-time positioning. The primary challenge is that Australia has a large and sparsely populated landmass and dense CORS networks cannot be justified economically. It would be a major step forward if a true real-time, high precision positioning service could be reliably deployed over a large area without significantly increasing the density of reference stations. This paper presents the latest status of the ARC project. Major research components of the projcct are outlined, addressing both technical and practical challenges. Critical issues associated with appropriate models and algorithms required to support a networked real-time kinematic positioning capability over a large area will be discussed. In addition, a number of practical components of the research, such as software and hardware platforms, atmospheric characteristics pertinent to the Australian context, and the newly developed network RTK platform, its implementation and performance evaluation in terms of accuracy, station separation and geometry, repeatability, latency and reliability, etc, is also discussed.