Custom Real-Time-Kinematics Positioning System Testbed for Mobile Robot Localization

Global-Positioning-System Real-Time-Kinematics (GPS-RTK) is a highly accurate positioning technology which has become reasonably affordable in the recent past and which is very useful as a mobile robot localization method. However, much of the system-level inter-workings of a GPS-RTK system are likely not well understood by many roboticists and researchers. Our paper proposes a self-sufficient GPS-RTK system which is intended to be easily understood and readily deployable in a multitude of lab robotics scenarios. In order to further the understanding of GPS-RTK from a systems level, this paper first describes a Longe-Range Radio (LoRa®) GPS-RTK implementation from the ground up, as a synthesis of multiple open source technologies and independent projects, and then offers validation data of the system.