RTK vs Standard GPS for Mowing Contractors: A Field Guide

What separates standard GPS from RTK?

Standard GPS is commonly described as accurate to roughly 2 to 10 meters outdoors. Sources differ on the exact band, with some saying 3 to 10 meters and others 5 to 10, but they agree on the order of magnitude. According to an undated guide on the ArduSimple site, errors come from atmospheric effects and satellite clock errors, which is why a standard receiver can place a mower in the right field and still miss a bed edge by a wide margin.

RTK, short for real time kinematic, works differently. It relies on carrier phase measurements, which resolve position far more finely than the code based method used by standard receivers, and a reference station sends corrections that the mower applies while it runs. Differential GPS, the older correction method, improves positioning to submeter or decimeter levels but stops short of centimeters.

Vendors sell RTK on the centimeter claim. That claim holds only under conditions that brochures rarely list first, so the rest of this guide covers which conditions to ask about before you accept a quote.

How does RTK reach centimeter accuracy?

RTK must first reach a fixed status. In float, the receiver uses carrier phase but has not resolved the whole number ambiguities, and accuracy is often decimeter to submeter. A mower that never reaches fixed is not running at centimeter accuracy, whatever the spec sheet says.

Distance from the base matters too. One source says centimeter accuracy is not reliable beyond about 35 km from the base and degrades toward standard levels as distance grows. A contractor serving clients across a wide metro area should check the distance from each site to the nearest reference, not just the headline figure.

Typical RTK systems are cited at 1 to 3 cm horizontal and 3 to 4 cm vertical in the same aggregator guide. Treat those figures as a general benchmark, since they do not come from a single manufacturer's specification.

Local base station or network correction: what changes?

Kress, which markets its RTKn mowers as delivering centimeter level accuracy, describes two setups. In the local option, the customer installs, positions, powers and maintains a base station on the property. In the network option, the mower draws corrections from multiple permanent reference stations and needs no base antenna on site. Kress's US product page and its Irish product page, both checked as of November 2026, describe these arrangements, but neither publishes a single numeric accuracy figure.

The choice moves work and risk. A local base means someone at the site must keep it powered, placed and working, and the crew becomes its keeper. A network setup shifts that burden to the correction provider, yet the mower still depends on a usable signal at the lawn itself. Ask which model a vendor uses, who maintains it, and what happens during an outage.

Where does RTK accuracy fall off on real lawns?

Kress's FAQ, as reviewed for this piece, says that both local RTK and the RTK network can be affected by GNSS signal obstruction from trees and buildings. That text came from a search summary, so check the live page before you quote it to a client.

Anthbot, a mower maker, states that navigation accuracy can temporarily drop from centimeter level to meter level when the signal weakens. That is the failure mode crews should plan around. A mower that drifts a meter at the edge of a bed or a cart path cannot be trusted to hold a tight line without a check.

Tree lined lots and buildings are where these conditions meet. A third party guide dated January 2026 cites plus or minus 2 cm for one mower and says the figure runs to 3 to 5 cm in a typical suburban yard. That guide is not a manufacturer datasheet, so read it as an estimate that tells you what to measure, not what to promise.

What should you ask a supplier to demonstrate?

A useful demonstration answers operational questions, not only headline ones. Request the following, in writing, before you compare quotes.

• Which correction method runs the mower, local base or network, and who installs and maintains it.
• The accuracy figure with its test conditions beside it, open sky or obstructed, and the method used to measure it.
• How the mower reports fixed or float status during a run, and whether the crew can see that status on a screen.
• What the mower does when the signal weakens, including whether it slows, stops or continues at meter level, and what alert reaches the crew.
• Coverage at your address, including the distance to the nearest reference station or network point.
• A boundary mapping run on one of your lawns, with the resulting map checked against a measured reference point.

How should contractors test accuracy on client lawns?

A vendor demo shows the best case. Your client lawns show the working case. Before you trust a claim, mark a few fixed points with survey stakes or known features such as a valve box or a walk corner, measure them with a tool you trust, and record where the mower actually runs against those points.

Run the test across more than one day and more than one time of day. Log the fix status, the deviation at each point, and any stretch where the mower reported float or lost the signal. Note the canopy and building lines near each point, because those variables change most. Repeat the route after leaves come in or after the sun angle shifts on a heavily shaded site.

Boundary mapping deserves the same care. An aggregator guide from rtkdata.com covers wire free RTK accuracy and boundary mapping for 2026. Its figures are not manufacturer verified, so use it as a checklist of what to log rather than as a source of target numbers.

Where does a lease fit into the decision?

Service Robot Co. is an OEM neutral integrator. We select the right robot across manufacturers for the job, then finance, deploy, integrate, train and service each unit through a nationwide US engineer network. The supplier question, the correction setup and the support agreement stay with one partner and one number instead of three companies.

For mowing work, we lease robots through financing on a three year lease, with one fixed payment quoted after a site assessment. A pilot on one zone or one client site lets a contractor test RTK performance on real ground before committing to a wider fleet. The mower brands named in this article are described only from public pages checked as of November 2026.