Impact of Additional Antenna Groundplanes on RTK-GNSS Positioning Accuracy of UAVs

Abstract. Precise position information is important for terrestrial and airborne surveying systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Those systems often rely on real-time kinematic (RTK) global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) for position determination, where the GNSS antenna mounting environment impacts the GNSS position accuracy to a great extent. This paper investigates the impact of different supplementary groundplane shapes, sizes, and materials on multi-band patch and helical GNSS antennas at both, the UAV rover and RTK base station with respect to the achievable position accuracy. The groundplanes consist of solid aluminum sheets or copper plated printed circuit boards (PCBs) and are mounted directly underneath the GNSS antennas. Appropriate supplementary groundplanes are found to significantly improve the GNSS position accuracy in the majority of test cases.