Since 2013, Trimble has offered a new approach to location technology - RTX (Real Time Extended). As the name implies, this is the next step in the development of RTK (Real Time Kinematic) technology.
The moment of «official» emergence of Precise agriculture can be considered the output of the usual GPS technology market. It made it possible to obtain the coordinates of equipment in the field without the use of additional instruments. The novelty was not in the very possibility of determining the location - the seamen know how to do it for a long time, the value was that the coordinates were continuously determined for each vehicle while driving.
There were also pitfalls - cloudiness can dazzle the GPS system, you can not start work right away, and when convergence takes place, the device will accurately determine its location. The accuracy of the GPS system is in the decimeter range, that is, the coordinates are determined with an error of 30-60 cm. When a sprayer or a seeder is used, this error may indicate gaps between the treatment bands (or the re-treatment zone) in one or two nozzles. The larger the treated area, the greater the loss.
For more accurate determination of coordinates, RTK technology (accuracy up to 2 cm) has appeared - virtual reference stations have come to help satellites, which can be stationary and temporary. The former are already installed as a network of virtual reference stations and are used for a certain fee. Temporary can be moved to any region for the duration of agricultural operations. The parallel driving device «Vodoley 2+RTK» works with the system of ground stations and provides the accuracy of determining the coordinates from 2 cm.
In 2013, Trimble introduced a new RTX technology, which is based on GNSS and does not need the use of VRSs - virtual reference stations.
Updating RTX technology from 2018 provides an error in determining the coordinates of less than 2cm. Improved launch time - full accuracy is possible in less than a minute where RTX Fast infrastructure is available, in other regions in less than 15 minutes.
RTX technology allows to reduce the idle time of the equipment during the processing of the territory and determines its coordinates without using of virtual reference stations.
