Performance assessment of no-fee GNSS augmentation systems for tractor guidance
[EN] This study assesses the performance of no-fee GNSS augmentation systems for tractor guidance. Five no-fee augmentation systems: EGNOS, GLIDE, RTK, VRS-NRTK, and on-site RTK were evaluated in both static and guidance tests over short- and long‑term periods using three GNSS receiver types: low-co...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Salamanca (USAL) |
| Repositorio: | GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:gredos______::7966535b7eaa7193a10573c6a2360ad8 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10366/171017 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Tractor guidance GNSS augmentation system EGNOS GLIDE RTK VRS 2504.07 Geodesia por satélites 2504.03 Navegación Geodésica 3102.01 Mecanización Agrícola |
| Sumario: | [EN] This study assesses the performance of no-fee GNSS augmentation systems for tractor guidance. Five no-fee augmentation systems: EGNOS, GLIDE, RTK, VRS-NRTK, and on-site RTK were evaluated in both static and guidance tests over short- and long‑term periods using three GNSS receiver types: low-cost Navilock NL8022MP, mid-range Novatel Smart2, and high-end Harxon TS108PRO. Static tests recorded 24 h of position data from 14 receiver-augmentation configurations on a fixed surface. Guidance tests recorded trajectory data from the 14 configurations during straight-line guidance using a tractor equipped with two GNSS receivers, one under test and one high-precision reference. Results found that: (i) unaugmented GNSS resulted in guidance errors of 2–3 m, reduced below 1 m in pass-to-pass intervals shorter than 15 min; (ii) EGNOS reduced these guidance errors by ∼41%; (iii) GLIDE reduced guidance errors to below 20 cm for pass-to-pass intervals shorter than 15 min, with no long-term improvement; (iv) RTK guidance error decreased as baseline length shortened: >100 km yielded > 17 cm, 20–100 km yielded 3–20 cm, and < 20 km yielded 2–3 cm; (v) VRS-NRTK slightly outperformed RTK with similar baseline lengths; and (vi) on-site RTK enabled 1 cm guidance error. In summary: low-cost receivers without augmentation or with EGNOS result in metre-level errors; mid-range receivers with GLIDE deliver decimetre-level guidance errors in the short term; and high-end receivers using on-site RTK or VRS-NRTK on baselines up to 100 km achieve centimetre-level errors, enabling farmers to replicate tractor trajectories consistently year to year. |
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