Comparison

of Different
Survey
JAY PATEL - UCT20064
TOTAL STATION
Total station is a surveying equipment combination
of Electromagnetic distance measuring instrument
and electronic theodolite. It is also integrated with
microprocessor, electronic data collector and
storage system. The instrument can be used to
measure horizontal and vertical angles as well as
sloping distance of object to the instrument.

The following are some of the major advantages of

using total station:
● Field work is carried out very fast.
● Accuracy of measurement is high.
● Manual errors involved in reading and
recording are eliminated.
● Calculation of coordinates is very fast and
accurate. Even corrections for temperature
and pressure are automatically made.
● Computers can be employed for map making
and plotting contour and cross-sections.
Contour intervals and scales can be changed
in no time.
DGPS
Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) is an enhancement to Global Positioning System that provides
improved location accuracy, from the 15-meter nominal GPS accuracy to about 10 cm in case of the best
implementations. It refers to using a combination of receivers and satellites to reduce/eliminate common receiver
based and satellite based errors reduce orbit errors reduce ionospheric and tropospheric errors reduce effects of
SA eliminate satellite and receiver clock errors.
Advantages of using DGPS:
● While in use GPS, it is quite accurate, using DGPS pushes its accuracy even further.
● DGPS has to know the perfect location on the earth.
● Provide accurate data within a minute.
DRONE SURVEY
Surveying is the precise science of determining
the positions of objects, and the distances
between them & points in 2D and 3D space.

Surveys provide critical information that enables

informed decision making ranging from
construction site planning, to design and upkeep
of infrastructure, to delineating cadastral
property boundaries, and more
Data Extraction For Total Station Points
Points taken from Total Station
while surveying is added in
the AutoCAD and then the
alignment is smoothen in the
same software. From there
extraction is done for X and Y
coordinates. It is taken in
excel and then converted
into a CSV file which is
opened in QGIS to extract
the precise points.
Data Extraction for DGPS points
Points taken from DGPS while surveying is
added in the AutoCAD and then the alignment
is smoothen in the same software. From there
extraction is done for X and Y coordinates. It is
taken in excel and then converted into a CSV
file which is opened in QGIS to extract the
precise points.
Data Extraction for DGPS in Google Earth

Important location pin in google earth

Comparison
It can be seen that Total Station output and DGPS output do not overlap, this is because DGPS measures in
georeferenced coordinates and Total Station measures in local coordinates.

Total station gives accurate readings in mm when it is performed in plain terrain, but it is difficult in hilly terrain
to get mm accuracy.

Also, total station instrument is quite difficult to carry at each station point.

For DGPS smaller work is accurate but doing large amount of work may get errors.

Also the drone survey is more accurate than the other two surveys and produces high quality data but that
requires more storage space.

The drone survey is much more cheaper than DGPS and Total station but drones are not yet as advanced to
carry a survey in large areas due to their less battery life.

Drone path DGPS Total Station