Survey equipment identification

shiraz99

This morning I saw a person out the back fields to my house in high-vis walking around seemingly surveying and I was hoping someone on here could identify the equipment they were using and what they were surveying. They were too far away to take a pic but I have a drawing of the equipment which was a pole around 1500mm tall with a circular device on top like some sort of WiFi mesh thing and a small screen about half way down. They would stand with the pole touching the ground, wait a minute or two then walk a few feet away and try again.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661217/survey-equipment-identification

Probably GPS based topographical surveying - if they weren't following a feature like a fence or hedge then they were probably picking up spot levels for producing ground level/contour mapping.

Is someone planning to turn the field into a housing estate?

Edit: The circular part is the GPS antenna, the screen on the pole will be a data logger.

born_again

GPS position device.

Woodstok2000

Could be Land surveying ahead of building work. The top part is usually for GPS, and the screen provides the readings.

shiraz99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81936563#Comment_81936563

Yeah, having looked at a view pics from Google I believe you are correct. The field does have outline planning permission but it had gone very quiet since the previous developers pulled out.

flaneurs_lobster

It'll be a survey pole with a GNSS receiver (and a display to show the position).

Like GPS on your mobile but instead of an accuracy of 5+ meters or so, GNSS is good down to a cm (or even mm's in ideal conditions).

MyRealNameToo

Like https://www.heliguy.com/heliguy-survey/emlid-gnss-receivers/

Ayr_Rage

Surveying for the 30 foot high warehouse that's going to be built.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81936580#Comment_81936580

'GNSS' is the generic term, 'GPS' the name of the US GNSS system.

The millimetre accuracy for surveying is achieved by [real-time] correction of the received GPS/GNSS signals - typically by the use of a base station set up on one of the 'control stations' established at the start of the survey. The electronics know where the base station is to mm accuracy (based on the survey coordinate system) so can apply a correction to the position of the survey pole (aka pogo stick) by comparing the signals received by the pogo and base stations.

Saves a huge amount of time compared to the triangulation methods we used to use.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81936579#Comment_81936579

…so probably someone wants an up to date topo survey so they can start the final designs.