FIG Commission 5 - Positioning and Measurement

Working Group 5.6
Cost Effective Positioning  

Policy Issues

  • Educate FIG member associations and individual surveyors on when to use which surveying instrument or evaluation software taking into account economic reasons
  • Design fit-for-purpose surveying systems that are cost-effective
  • Support decision makers for establishing cost-effective positioning solutions

Chair

Leonid A. Lipatnikov, Russia
l.lipatnikov[at]ssga.ru

Li Zhang, Germany
li.zhang[at]iigs.uni-stuttgart.de

What we are working on -

  • Developing guidelines for cost-effective use and design of survey solutions including costs for labour and investment
  • FIG Publication on cost effective surveying techniques

What's New

In 2019, FIG report 74 "Cost effective precise positioning with GNSS" was published. The report contains an overview of a vast variety of options enabling cost-effective use of precise GNSS positioning. High-precision low-cost GNSS hardware, software-defined receivers, CORS networks, free data and information sources, versatile free open source software, free online post-processing and real-time correction services, and SBAS are discussed. Current trends and forecasts for technology development, adoption, and cost dynamics are analyzed. It is shown how the decrease of the user costs for high precision positioning may be shaped by the emerging applications including location based services, automatic UAV guidance, and self-driving cars. General recommendations for choosing a cost-effective positioning technology are proposed. Work on the second edition of the report is in progress.