What is difference Drone GPS PPK and Drone GPS RTK?

What’s the difference between PPK and RTK?

Both PPK and RTK seem to use the same equipment, so how are they different and which one is better? The key to understanding the difference between PPK and RTK is knowing that they use virtually the same technology. However, they use different workflows to achieve the same goal.

In RTK, measurements corrections are made “real-time,” as its name implies. This requires the ground station and the onboard RTK module to be in constant communication throughout the survey. However, this may be difficult to achieve in certain survey areas. Large buildings, mountains, and trees could very easily block the communication signals between the RTK module and the ground station. This will result in uncorrected location or RTK-float data. When this happens, all the accuracy benefits that RTK can give gets thrown out the window.

PPK does away with the requirement of maintaining constant communication. Instead of forcing real-time data correction, a PPK workflow focuses on post-processing adjustment. This relies on the ground station and the onboard PPK module collecting synchronized location data. After the survey, the datasets from the ground station and the onboard module are reconciled the timestamps of the data points. Again, the location data of the onboard module is corrected according to the more accurate ground station data.