How Cloud RTK Works and Its Differences from Conventional RTK

In traditional RTK positioning, users had to set up their own GNSS receiver (base station) at a known reference point, exchanging correction data with a mobile rover via wireless communication (such as digital or low-power radio). Positioning accuracy depended heavily on the distance from the base station, and the communication range was typically limited to several kilometers up to around ten kilometers, depending on radio signal reach. Additionally, purchasing, installing, and managing the base station equipment required considerable effort and upfront costs.

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On the other hand, Cloud RTK does not require setting up a dedicated base station on-site. Instead, correction data from a network of multiple reference stations installed nationwide (such as Japan's Geospatial Information Authority's GNSS Earth Observation Network or private reference station networks) is integrated by a cloud server, which then distributes this data to the user's rover via the internet. Users simply carry their rover (GNSS receiver), receive correction data via mobile networks, and can immediately achieve high-precision positioning.

For example, SoftBank’s high-precision positioning service has established over 3,300 proprietary reference stations across Japan, enabling users to easily access high-precision positioning services without needing to install their own base stations.

One of the greatest advantages of Cloud RTK is its wide coverage area. Even when the rover moves across large distances, the cloud server automatically selects and switches to the optimal reference stations, continuously delivering stable, high-accuracy correction data. This eliminates concerns about accuracy deterioration due to distance from a base station, and the inconvenience of installing base stations for each new work area. Additionally, a significant reduction in initial investment costs is another major benefit. Traditionally, utilizing RTK required expensive GNSS receivers and radio equipment. However, with Cloud RTK, these dedicated devices are no longer necessary, allowing affordable equipment and existing smart devices to be utilized.

In fact, Lefixea's LRTK service uses a monthly subscription-based plan, enabling operation with just software fees—including positioning applications—and significantly reducing initial costs.

Operational simplicity is also greatly enhanced. With Cloud RTK, users no longer need to transport and set up heavy base station equipment on-site. Correction data can be accessed anywhere as long as there is connectivity via devices such as smartphones or tablets. Even when multiple workers conduct simultaneous surveys with individual rovers, a single cloud service efficiently provides corrections. Additionally, because calculations are performed in the cloud, the operation of receivers becomes simplified and user-friendly.

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Use Cases of Cloud RTK in Construction and Surveying

High-precision Cloud RTK technology is driving innovative advancements in construction, civil engineering, and surveying. For example, attaching an ultra-compact RTK-GNSS receiver, such as the LRTK Phone, to a smartphone enables it to function as a pocket-sized surveying tool that can be easily used on-site.

By mounting an LRTK device onto an iPhone or iPad, workers can perform as-built measurements, stake-outs, and even overlay design data using Augmented Reality (AR) with centimeter-level global accuracy. This significantly digitalizes and streamlines construction management tasks traditionally dependent on manual methods or intuition. Moreover, point-cloud data and captured images can be instantly shared via the cloud, enabling real-time collaboration between field sites and offices.

Cloud RTK also proves powerful in infrastructure management. Combining smartphones with high-precision GNSS allows automatic tagging of photos—taken during bridge inspections, crack evaluations of concrete structures, or assessments at disaster sites—with positional coordinates accurate to a few centimeters. These precisely geotagged images can then be easily stored and managed within cloud databases.

This significantly enhances the accuracy and efficiency of infrastructure inspection records. By utilizing LRTK, photos of damaged structures taken with a smartphone can be precisely geotagged and uploaded to the cloud. This enables detailed remote monitoring and analysis of disaster conditions directly from offices located far away.

In this way, Cloud RTK simplifies data collection and sharing for infrastructure maintenance and disaster prevention, contributing greatly to faster decision-making processes.

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Cloud RTK technology is also increasingly utilized in precision agriculture (smart farming). Agricultural tractors and rice planters equipped with high-precision GNSS receivers are gaining popularity for automated steering and assisted straight-line driving. Network-based RTK provides stable correction data across extensive farmland, enabling consistently accurate position control. SoftBank’s Cloud RTK service, "ichimill," is being explored for applications such as autonomous agricultural machinery, drone-based pesticide spraying, progress management at construction sites, and even self-driving buses. The company is actively conducting demonstration trials with enterprises across various industries.

In this way, Cloud RTK is increasingly utilized across diverse fields ranging from agriculture and construction to transportation, contributing to the alleviation of labor shortages, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced safety.
 

Benefits of Integration with LRTK

To fully leverage the advantages of Cloud RTK, a combination of user-friendly hardware and software is essential. Lefixea’s LRTK Cloud service offers an integrated solution that seamlessly connects dedicated devices and applications with cloud computing, enabling consistent handling of high-precision positioning data from the field to the cloud.

Easy-to-use Positioning Environment: The greatest advantage of LRTK is its ease of use through seamless integration with smartphones and tablets. Simply attach the dedicated ultra-compact GNSS receiver to your smartphone and connect via Bluetooth—no complex cable wiring is required—to achieve high-precision RTK positioning.

By launching the dedicated "LRTK" app, compatible with both iPhone and Android devices, switching from standalone positioning to RTK positioning and configuring measurement modes are fully automated, allowing intuitive operation even by field staff without specialized expertise. For instance, the LRTK Phone weighs just 125 grams and is only 13 mm thick, making it a practical, pocket-sized device that enables precise measurements on-site whenever needed, even while moving around.

Its affordable pricing makes it realistic to equip each team member individually, allowing the entire team to perform positioning tasks simultaneously and greatly enhancing overall productivity.

Data Utilization via Cloud Services: Positioning data and photographs captured with LRTK can be automatically uploaded and stored on the dedicated cloud platform, "LRTK Cloud." Through a web browser interface, the cloud service allows centralized data management, automatic generation of daily reports, and easy sharing of information among stakeholders.

For example, you can visualize 3D point cloud data collected in the field directly on LRTK Cloud, overlay it with design drawings for comparison, or map and share captured photographs geographically—all achievable with just a single click. Integrating with the cloud also enables real-time remote support. For instance, products like the LRTK Helmet, where workers simply wear a GNSS device on their head as they move around, continuously record positional data. This collected data is instantly transmitted to the cloud via smartphones, allowing remote offices to immediately verify data and provide surveying instructions on the spot.

In this way, aggregating data on the cloud facilitates collaboration beyond the boundaries of the field and the office, greatly contributing to enhanced operational efficiency and improved quality.

In short, by utilizing a Cloud RTK service like LRTK, users can seamlessly perform high-precision positioning using affordable smart devices and manage and share data via the cloud. This significantly lowers the barriers to precise positioning tasks, enabling companies to easily conduct surveys internally that previously required outsourcing to specialists, thereby accelerating digital transformation (DX) in the field.

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Future Outlook of Cloud RTK

Cloud RTK technology is expected to continue evolving and become widely adopted as an integral part of our social infrastructure. In particular, its combination with 5G communication is likely to further expand its potential. With 5G's ultra-high speed, low latency, and massive simultaneous connectivity, the delivery of correction data in Cloud RTK can become even more real-time and stable. This will make it more reliable to provide high-precision positioning to fast-moving platforms such as autonomous vehicles and drones. Moreover, by leveraging 5G's MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) technology, correction processing servers can be placed closer to end users (at the network edge), drastically reducing latency. This opens up broader applications in dynamic robotics and machine control.

Applications of Cloud RTK in smart cities are also a major topic. In future smart cities, countless IoT sensors embedded in urban infrastructure, vehicles, mobile devices, and wearables will interact and exchange positional data. In this context, Cloud RTK can serve as an integrated, city-scale foundation for high-precision positioning. SoftBank has noted that “with the realization of Cloud RTK, it will become easier to apply RTK positioning to compact infrastructure-monitoring sensors and wearable devices.” This suggests a future where all types of sensors throughout the city can recognize and record their locations with centimeter-level accuracy. For example, road sensors capable of detecting subtle surface deformations, or cameras tracking the flow of people, could begin to visualize previously invisible data through precise location referencing. As positioning accuracy improves, it will directly enhance a wide range of smart city services—including traffic optimization, crime prevention, disaster response, and logistics management—positioning Cloud RTK as a key enabling technology for building smarter cities.

Cloud RTK is also an essential component in the field of autonomous driving. Mobility platforms such as self-driving cars and drones require lane-level accuracy to determine their precise location. Since standalone GPS cannot meet this level of precision, high-accuracy satellite positioning technologies combined with communication-based correction methods—such as RTK or PPP-RTK—are used. In Japan, a satellite-based RTK correction service called CLAS (Centimeter-Level Augmentation Service), provided by the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System “Michibiki,” has already been launched. Demonstration experiments using CLAS for autonomous driving are currently underway.

In the future, by combining Cloud RTK with satellite-based augmentation services, it will become possible to provide seamless and stable positioning even in challenging environments such as areas outside of cellular coverage or dense urban canyons. This will help build the infrastructure needed to support the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and unmanned aerial systems.

In this way, high-precision positioning technologies, including Cloud RTK, are expected to evolve into next-generation location infrastructure by integrating with 5G, artificial intelligence, and IoT. As new high-precision positioning services continue to emerge, the barriers to adopting RTK are gradually being lowered, and it is anticipated that more and more companies and organizations will begin to use RTK as an accessible and practical technology.

With the widespread adoption of centimeter-level positioning, this technology is expected to drive not only greater efficiency and cost reduction in fields such as autonomous driving, remote monitoring, precision agriculture, and construction DX, but also contribute to improved safety—enabling robot operations in hazardous environments where human access is difficult. It is regarded as a transformative technology with broad potential.

Cloud RTK is poised to become a key enabler of highly digitalized social infrastructure and will lead the future of location-based services.