Performance comparison of a low-cost mapping grade global positioning systems (GPS) receiver and consumer grade GPS receiver under dense forest canopy

Abstract

We compared the measurement accuracy and reliability of a low-cost mapping grade global positioning systems (GPS) receiver to a consumer grade GPS receiver while operating under a very dense forest canopy. The mapping grade GPS receiver collected both autonomous (uncorrected) GPS measurements and measurements that were differentially corrected in real time through the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Although we found average measurement accuracies of 7.2 m for uncorrected data and 7.8 m for differentially corrected data for the mapping grade GPS, these differences were not statistically significant. The overall average positional error for the consumer grade GPS was larger (8.9 m) than that of the mapping grade GPS but the consumer grade GPS collected data more efficiently and, for about half of all points collected, with smaller measurement errors. Copyright © 2007 by the Society of American Foresters.