FIG 2023 Work Week Wrap Up
GEODNET is proud to have participated in the FIG 2023 Work Week in Orlando, Florida. The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) was founded in 1828 and is the premier international, non-government organization for the field of surveying and its many applications. The “Work Week” is FIG’s annual meeting with over 1000 experts in the geo-spatial field gathering for technical meetings.
GEODNET Booth
At the GEODNET booth, we showed the triple-frequency full-constellation GNSS base-station design that has been widely deployed around the world.
GEODNET displayed several user-side hardware solutions that already are utilizing GEODNET in the field. These included lidar scanning solutions for DJI drones, a survey-grade rover from EasyRTK, and hgh-precision GNSS / INS solutions from ANELLO Photonics.
A live GEODNET map showed the 3100+ station network in real-time. Visitors checked their region for local GEONDET coverage as well as opportunities to deploy new stations. New interest for deployments in Australia, USA, Canada, Dominican Republic, India, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, and the Sierra Leone was discussed.
Live Demonstrations
During FIG 2023, multiple outdoor live field demonstrations utilized GEODNET for RTK corrections. GEODNET has more than 30 stations across Florida and approximately 5 in the Orlando area. It was easy to get a quick RTK fix and centimeter accuracy at the event. Both a DJI drone as well as survey receivers were demonstrated live using GEODNET. Joel van Cranenbroeck from ComNav conducted several live demonstrations with GEODNET and shared the news on LinkedIn here.
Two other vendors were given credentials as well, and one GEODNET station owner even gave a short Drone flying lesson to the GEODNET team.
Technical Presentation
GEODNET was represented in the technical Program under Comission 5 — “GNSS REFERENCE STATIONS AND NETWORKS”.
A paper co-authored by GEODNET, “Can Co-Location and Community CORS Add Value to GNSS Data,” was presented by Dr. Luis Elneser, a PPP and GNSS network expert. Luis showed a framework for how GEODNET data with appropriate machine learning and data management techniques can augment existing reference station networks.
Conclusions
FIG 2023 was a vibrant event with so many new global connections made for the GEODNET project.
Many countries representatives were impressed with how low-cost infrastructure can enable high precision positioning applications in their countries. A key conclusion, the cost of infrastructure for corrections is no longer a barrier to economic development.
As Mike Horton, the GEODNET Project Creator, explains “it is not only the rapidly developing nations who are realizing the benefit of GEODNET — even countries with well established GNSS infrastructure like the USA has many areas with no corrections at all. GEODNET is here to help.”
