Abstract
ACCURACY COMPARISON OF TOTAL STATION (TS) AND GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) IN DETERMINING HEIGHT WITHIN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT
Prof. Ismat M. Elhassan*
ABSTRACT
Positioning accuracy of earth surface points is usually needed for various surveying and engineering projects. All the traditional methods of spatial measurement such as theodolites and differential levels give highly acceptable accurate spatial data. They are however, time consuming and consequently expensive. The use of modern technologysuch as GPS and Total Station is becoming favorite in the field of spatial measurement. For this reason, such techniques of point poisoning are becoming widely used. Considerable research results showed that GPS horizontal positioning accuracy compete well with Total Station. The objective of this paper, however, is to evaluate and compare accuracy of Total Station (TS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in height determination within an urban environment. Network of height control points for accuracy comparison of these two techniques was established using a digital level.Test results show that GPS is 5 times less accurate than TS in elevation determination. Height accuracy obtained using TS was 0.004m, while height accuracy obtained using GPS in Fast Static mode was 0.020m in an urban environment for a nine points traverse of total distance around 400m.
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