Evaluation of Recreational GPS Receivers for Use in Precision Farming

Kent Shannon, Charles Ellis, Matthew Herring and Gary Hoette

Abstract:	Producers have pointed to the investment cost of equipment as being the major obstacle of adopting precision agriculture. One piece of equipment important to precision agriculture is GPS. With the elimination of Selective Availability, an opportunity of using less expensive recreational GPS receivers have become an alternative compared to more expensive sub-meter DGPS receivers for use in making management decisions that an affect profitability on the farm. During the harvest seasons of 2000 and 2001, a study was set forth to determine if lower cost recreational GPS receivers could be used for yield mapping. A combine equipped with a yield monitoring system was configured so that yield data could be collected simultaneously using a recreational GPS receiver and a sub-meter DGPS receiver. Results showed average relative positioning differences of 1.78 meters and that similar yield maps could be created. This type of work has continued through the harvest season of 2003 evaluating different yield monitoring systems and different low-cost recreational GPS receivers. During 2003, a study was set forth to determine if there were differences between various recreational GPS receivers as it relates to use in a precision farming application. This work is a continuation of previous research, described above, of comparing various recreational GPS receivers in the $100 to $500 range with a $3000 sub-meter DGPS receiver that is used widely in precision farming applications. Results from past work in 2000 and 2001 showed average relative positioning differences of ranged from 1.24 meters to 28.7 meters. The work conducted in 2003 compared various recreational GPS receivers to RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) GPS in dynamic tests. It was found that recreational GPS receivers could provide relative accuracies less than 1.5 meters depending on the configuration of the GPS receiver. The only issue with the test was that it was conducted in a straight pass, north south or east west directions. There was enough data that supported the conclusion that testing needed to be conducted in a contour pattern, because relative accuracies doubled between straight passes to contour passes. This led to the conclusion that different considerations need to be made when selecting a recreational GPS receiver for use in some precision farming applications.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2004) June 7 - 9, 2004 Dayton Marriott Hotel Dayton, OH
Pages:	354 - 365
Cite this article:	Shannon, Kent, Ellis, Charles, Herring, Matthew, Hoette, Gary, "Evaluation of Recreational GPS Receivers for Use in Precision Farming," Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2004), Dayton, OH, June 2004, pp. 354-365.
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