Drone Survey, Mapping and Navigation Blog

When wildfires roar through California’s forests, when hurricanes flatten coastal towns, or when floods swallow entire valleys, the immediate aftermath is chaos. Emergency teams rush in, but one critical question lingers: How bad is it? Where exactly did the land shift? What areas are now unsafe? How do we prioritize recovery?   For years, answering these questions meant waiting days or even weeks, for satellite imagery or manned aerial surveys. But that’s changing. Thanks to

The moment the sirens stop and the dust settles, a new kind of emergency begins.   It’s not the roar of flames or the crash of floodwaters. It’s the quiet, creeping uncertainty: How much land is gone? Where is the soil unstable? What wildlife habitats have vanished? And most urgently, where should we send help first?   For years, answering these questions meant waiting. Waiting for satellite passes. Waiting for manned flights. Waiting for teams to trek through hazardous terra

Picture this: You’re standing in the middle of a 200-acre construction site, drone in hand, racing against time and weather. Your client needs accurate cut and fill volumes by tomorrow morning. Do you rely on a system that gives you centimeter precision right now, or one that might take hours or days to finalize the data?   This is the real-world dilemma behind one of geospatial technology’s biggest debates: RTK vs. PPP. Both promise high accuracy. Both use GNSS. But only one

Flying a drone used to mean long hours of training, countless practice flights, and a steep learning curve just to capture usable data. But not anymore.   Today, the right combination of hardware and software can turn someone who’s never flown a drone into a confident, capable operator in a single afternoon. The secret? A powerful UAV ground control station paired with intuitive UAV mapping software. These tools are leveling the playing field, making professional-grade aerial

When it comes to high-precision GPS in surveying, drone mapping, and GIS data collection, accuracy isn’t just a goal, it’s a requirement. Whether you're mapping construction sites, reconstructing accident scenes, or monitoring agricultural land, the difference between centimeter-level precision and guesswork can mean the success or failure of your entire project.   At Robota, we’ve built our reputation on delivering reliable, accessible, and accurate geospatial tools like the

Imagine standing on a job site, watching your drone zip across the sky or tapping away at your tablet as real-time centimeter-level coordinates stream in, no guesswork, no delays, just pinpoint certainty. That’s not magic. That’s RTK. And with a little know-how, you can build your own RTK GPS base station and unlock surveying superpowers most professionals only dream of. At Robota, we’ve spent over a decade helping engineers, surveyors, GIS specialists, and drone operators ha

For decades, ground control points (GCPs) have been the backbone of accurate drone mapping and photogrammetry. Surveyors would trek across job sites, hammer in markers, and meticulously record coordinates, often spending hours just to ensure their aerial data would align with reality. But times are changing. With the rise of advanced RTK GPS systems, a quiet revolution is underway in the surveying world. More and more professionals are leaving the GCP stencil behind in favor

If you’re stepping into the world of precision mapping, land surveying, or drone-based photogrammetry for the first time, you’ve probably heard the term “RTK GPS receiver” more than a few times. And for good reasons, RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) technology has become the gold standard for achieving centimeter-level accuracy without the hassle of traditional ground control points. But here’s the catch: not all RTK GPS receivers are created equal. With a growing number of options

Picture this: You're out in the field, knee-deep in mud, wrestling with a tripod that's seen better days, and the sun's beating down while you manually plot points on a topographic map. Hours drag on, and by the end of the day, you've got a handful of data points that barely scratch the surface of the job. Sound familiar? That's the old-school way of surveying, and it's enough to make anyone rethink their career choices. But what if I told you there's a smarter path? One that