What is RTK? A Guide For The Perplexed

What is RTK? A Guide For The Perplexed

When it comes to satellite navigation, there are a plethora of terms for various technologies used to locate something somewhere on the earth with precision. Most will be familiar with GPS (Global Positioning System), but what about other related acronyms? For example, what is RTK?

What is RTK?
RTK stands for Real Time Kinematic positioning. It’s a technology that can enhance a standard GPS signal and transform its resolution from a few meters to a few centimeters.

The way RTK works is by having a fixed base station of known position. The thing that needs to have a precise position, can be referred to the rover. The base station calculates correction data from the carrier signals sent from the satellites. Then, the base station sends these real-time correction signals to the rover, enhancing the precision of the rovers position. For a deeper explanation please refer here.

RTK and robotic mowers
Robot mowers have been around for a while now. They continue to use a variety of methods to navigate themselves around lawns. Lots use a guide wire that is placed around the perimeter of the lawn (known as perimeter wire). This wire has a current pass through it, which the robot can detect. The polarity tells the robot whether it is on the inside or the outside of the lawn boundary.

The simplest robots of this type use the following ‘algorithm’:

What is RTK? A Guide For The Perplexed


What other technologies do robots use?
Lots of robotic mowers also use the perimeter wire in conjunction with other technologies, such as radar, GPS, visual terrain analysis etc to assist in making the mowing as accurate and efficient as possible.

Many of these technologies don’t allow the robot to mow linearly, however, and the robot movesin a random profile across the lawn. RTK is precise enough to allow the robot to mow in a blockby block fashion, with each block being no larger than 5x5cm.

Advantages and disadvantages to RTK
What is RTK? Is a perfect question to ask in the context of robot mowers. It’s a fantastic technology that really brings down the scale of measurement, enhancing the efficiency of robot mowers. It is not without its own disadvantages though. RTK technology works best with unobstructed skies, so the base station can measure the carrier signals and relay the correction signals to the mower effectively. This means that RTK equipped robotic mowers are more suitable to wide open spaces rather than lawns surrounded by trees and buildings like those found mainly in residential settings.

Find out more about RTK today
To find out more about RTK equipped robotic mowers then visit the innovative manufacturer Ambrogio here.

RTK - TRUE or FALSE?

TRUE or FALSE? When mowing with a wireless robot that features GPS, RTK, GNNS or EPOS, the robot will be more accurate and cut right up to the edge of the lawn.

FALSE! A wireless system needs to allow for a much larger margin for error along the border edges - the virtual border line can fluctuate between 4-8cm left or right, so you need to be conservative along the edge to prevent it falling out of border, particularly if you have cliff edges.


TRUE or FALSE? Robots with RTK etc will be more reliable that a perimeter wire.

FALSE! Robots that use this technology are extremely sensitive to the surrounding environment and environmental influences, for example a large tree canopy, buildings, fences etc. This makes them prone to confusion, requiring intervention from the owner to rescue or reset them. Some RTK robots require constant connection with the cloud via GSM 4G or Wi-Fi, making them very vulnerable or inoperable if any of them services become unavailable.


TRUE or FALSE? Running costs for RTK etc robots are the same as for perimeter-wire solutions.

FALSE! Some RTK robots may use large amounts of chargeable mobile data, and even an annual data subscription for them to operate. A perimeter-wired robot operates inside a closed loop, meaning everything needed to make the robot work is within your control and simple to rectify if something goes wrong. They also don't rely on 3rd party services to operate.


TRUE or FALSE? An RTK etc robot with Linier Cutting will give a better finish.

FALSE! An RTK robot cutting in a linear patten can easily miss long strips of grass a few centimetres wide between rows, because of the inaccuracies of the system. The grass is cut only once, resulting in longer grass cuttings that take longer to decompose. A wired robot operating with a random algorithm will result in a far superior finish because the grass is cut from multiple directions. The grass clippings are cut much smaller and combed back into the lawn.

What Is RTK - Video