

Elevating knowledge: read our in-depth features

A short provision in the larger Islands Act bill passed by the Scottish Parliament in July 2018 now requires government mapmakers to put the Shetland Islands where it belongs. Tavish Scott, a politici...

Ordnance Survey (OS) has just updated its geodetic infrastructure. Mark Greaves, Lead Consultant at Geodesy, describes these developments and takes a look at shorter and longer-term geodetic issues fo...

The theme of this issue of Geomatics World is GNSS. Geodesy was once very much in the domain of surveyors but today the use of satellite data for positioning is ubiquitous and with 95% of the populati...

Indoor mapping is often associated with the rise in location-based services, but over the past few years there has been a growing demand for indoor mapping for a much wider range of use cases. In fact...

Mobile mapping systems usually rely on GNSS observations to maintain high positioning accuracy. Meanwhile, it is often necessary to use these systems to map areas where GNSS observations are not avail...

Continuously operating reference stations (CORS) are permanent GNSS stations that log and disseminate GNSS observations continuously to meet various user needs. CORS networks have been going up all ov...
Europe's satellite navigation ambitions reached a new milestone on 28 March, as the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the first two satellites of its Celeste in-orbit demonstration mission from New...
SBG Systems has expanded its product portfolio with the launch of the modular and scalable inertial navigation system, Stellar-40. It is specially designed for demanding environments and mission-criti...
Infrastructure failures rarely happen without warning, but the signals are often too subtle to detect through periodic inspections alone. Basetime is addressing this gap with the launch of Locator Two...
Advanced Navigation has launched Chimera Land to solve the challenge of maintaining precise vehicle positioning in deep, dark and unmapped GPS-denied underground mining environments. This new 3D laser...
From 14-18 September, a coalition of Norwegian government agencies and national institutions will organize Jammertest on the island of Andøya, Norway, for the fifth consecutive year. The annual even...
Bizmile has been appointed as the exclusive distributor of Silicon Sensing Systems products in South Korea, marking the company’s first representative in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Bizmile has built ...
Positioning, in its essence, represents the meticulous process of accurately determining the spatial location of an object concerning a specific framework or datum. This fundamental concept of positioning plays an indispensable role in the domains of geography and hydrography, persistently guiding the quest to pinpoint the precise locations of the objects and features we seek to measure and understand.
Depending on the specific application at hand, the framework within which positioning occurs can be either of a global or local nature. When thinking on a global scale, the utilization of advanced techniques like Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) comes into play. In this scenario, the framework for positioning is meticulously defined by geodetic coordinate reference systems, ensuring the utmost accuracy in spatial determinations on a planetary scale.
Conversely, in more localized settings, positioning takes on a distinct character, tailored to the unique demands of specific tasks. For instance, in the realms of construction and engineering, the precision of positioning is paramount, and it's achieved through instruments such as the Total Station, allowing for the highly accurate alignment and placement of structures and infrastructure. Meanwhile, indoor navigation is another intriguing facet of local positioning, where the frameworks are often established within the confines of buildings, where technologies like indoor positioning systems enable precise and efficient navigation.
As we delve deeper into the world of positioning, it becomes evident that this art and science of location determination extends its influence far and wide, offering versatile solutions for diverse applications, all while maintaining an unwavering commitment to spatial accuracy.