Free Station Task with Drone

Using drones with different purposes than only taking photos is nowadays the main direction of drone development. Drones are made for package delivery, people transport, etc. Drone equipped by GNSS RTK and prism can be used as orientation point for the free station. The idea is using drone to get coordinates of total stations inappropriate for GNSS. such as high buildings and forest. The drone can fly above the obstacle causing inappropriate, so the GNSS will compute the position coordinates correctly. Total station will measure distance and angles on prism to get free station coordinates. This article deals with the accuracy of using two points in the free station task. Accuracy of measurement and data is based on real values. Drone can be used as the target if it is not windy, the position accuracy of the target on drone is 5 cm. Wind has no effect on the vertical position accuracy of the the drone. The results show that the same principles and limitations must be observed when measuring the free station task. Horizontal angle between orientation points must be bigger than 100 gon and the zenith angle must be at least 50 gon. The distance between orientation and free station must longer than consequent measured points.