RTK: A Second Great Pinpointing
Next Thursday is the 25th anniversary of a watershed moment that paved the way for a proliferation of location-precise applications and mass adaption of modern positioning and mapping services. Referred to affectionately at the time as “The Great Pinpointing”, on May 1st, 2000, President Bill Clinton announced the end of “Selective Availability,” a deliberate signal degradation in the U.S. GPS system. Practically overnight, the accuracy of civilian GPS jumped from hundreds of feet to within about 20 feet—a massive leap that laid the groundwork for the modern mapping and navigation tools we now take for granted. From Google Maps to Uber, from Strava to Pokémon Go, nearly every location-based product or service we rely on today traces its origins to that moment. It was a sonic boom for innovation in the digital world.
Today, we’re on the cusp of another leap forward—one that could be just as transformative for the physical world automation stack: the broad deployment of a reliable, accessible RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) network.
RTK is a technique used to improve the accuracy of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals, correcting for errors in real-time using data from stationary reference stations. While standard GPS accuracy typically hovers in the range of several meters, RTK enhances that to centimeter-level precision. That might sound like a minor upgrade—but for drones, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and countless robotics applications, it’s the difference between fantasy and feasibility.
RTK is Essential for Autonomous Technologies
In construction, agriculture, logistics, and beyond, the potential of drones and robots has been widely touted. But in practice, many of these use cases remain stuck in R&D limbo or limited to tightly geofenced pilot projects. The missing link? Absolute, precise, and persistent localization. GPS alone doesn’t cut it when you need to reliably locate a drone relative to the corner of a building, or a farm robot within a crop row.
RTK solves this. It enables a level of positional accuracy that allows drones to land autonomously on small charging pads, construction rovers to perform high-precision site scans without manual survey markers, and delivery bots to navigate sidewalks and drop packages at specific doors. It provides a globally understandable, centimeter-accurate positioning layer that’s essential when robots are expected to operate in open environments with minimal human oversight.
A Shared Infrastructure Layer, Like GPS
Just as GPS became a foundational utility for the digital world, a robust RTK network can become foundational for the physical automation economy. But unlike GPS, which is satellite-based and globally available, RTK requires ground-based infrastructure: fixed base stations that constantly stream corrections over a network to receivers in the field.
Until recently, RTK networks were either highly localized (e.g., private installations on a farm or jobsite) or prohibitively expensive. That’s changing. A number of companies and governments are now working to deploy broad, affordable RTK networks—either as a service or as open infrastructure. As this layer becomes widely available and easy to integrate with commercial-grade GNSS receivers, it will unlock a wave of autonomy use cases previously deemed too complex or unreliable to commercialize. There are also a variety of entrepreneurial efforts to build DePIN distributed RTK networks on blockchains as well as retrofit existing real-world infrastructure with RTK functionality.
Towards a Cambrian Explosion
When GPS-enabled smartphones hit critical mass, location-aware apps didn’t just become better—they multiplied. Similarly, we can expect a Cambrian explosion of real-world automation the moment RTK infrastructure crosses a threshold of coverage, reliability, and accessibility.
Autonomous agtech machines can plant and harvest with surgical precision. Drone-based inspection and delivery can scale across urban and rural environments. Warehouse robots can operate with consistent accuracy outdoors, not just inside tightly controlled facilities. Even consumer robotics—think lawn mowers or home delivery bots—stand to benefit.
RTK isn’t just a technical upgrade—it’s an infrastructure revolution. And like GPS before it, once it’s in place, it will seem impossible to imagine the modern robotics stack without it. For startups and enterprises building in autonomy, now is the time to pay attention. The pieces are falling into place, and those who understand the significance of robust RTK coverage will be best positioned to lead in this next frontier.
As we’ve seen with GPS, a persistent, robust, and open location-mapping network can transform industries and daily life. With RTK, we’re looking at the same kind of inflection point—only this time, it’s not only about where we are on a screen. It may well have the most significant impact on where our machines are in the physical world, and what they can do when they know it with centimeter-level confidence.