GE 284

Hydrographic Surveying
Topic 5

Dr. Cosmas Yaw Asante

cosmasasante@[Link] // 0244974600
Jan 2014
 POSITION FIXING TECHNIQUE
Survey vessels use two main methods of positioning at
sea or any water body. They are Visual and Electronic
methods.
The selection of each method depends on:
[Link] of site;

[Link] of site area; and

iii. Volume of data to be collected or requested by the

client.
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 Visual positioning technique
When soundings or any other observations are being taken
from a boat or any other platform, the position of the boat
at each observation is fixed. Fix observations may be
made:

• entirely from the boat;

• from the shore; or

• from both.
 Some of the methods are:
• Cross rope soundings

• Location by range and angle from the shore.

• Location by two angles from shore

• Location by two angles from boat.

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 Cross rope sounding
This is the most accurate method of locating
soundings.
• It involves stretching across the line of sounding a
rope marked off by equidistant tags, the soundings
being taken opposite the tags.
• The method is suitable in harbours and across rivers if
the sections do not exceed about 300 m in length, but
it can also be adapted to offshore work.
• It is important that the position of the cross rope is
correlated to existing surveys.
 Location by range and one angle from shore
•The boat is driven in line with guide
poles
•The position is observed from a Total
station on shore at station A and a
target at B.
• The bearing or angle between the
boat (α and β) and target B measured.
•Disadvantage - the surveyor has no
total control of the operation ( boat).
•Suitable instrument stations are set
out when the angle reduces to about
30º.
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Location by range and one angle from shore
 Location by two angles from
shore
• No distance is measured.
•Simultaneous observations to the
boat from two shore stations A and
Bare made.
•The soundings are being located by
the intersections of the sight lines of
angles α1 and α2
• This method is applied to the location
of few isolated soundings.
•The routine followed by the
instrument men is similar to that
adopted in locations by a range and
one shore angle.
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 They are observed simultaneously on the fall of the signal
flag in the boat and their watch times are noted.
New instrument stations are occupied by one or both
observers when the intersection angle falls below 30º.
Advantage of this system is :
• the elimination of the preliminary work of setting out
• erecting range signals.
• It also avoids the difficulties in locations where the
currents are strong.
Disadvantage
two instrument men are required on shore and a surveyor
cannot supervise the work throughout.
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 Location by two angles from the boat
•Three shore objects A, B and C of known
position are observed to from the boat P
•Two angles α and β are obtained.
•The position of the boat is located by
resection.
•This method is used particularly when
periodic soundings are not required.
Advantage
• concentration of party in one boat
• no preliminary shore work is required.
•The angles should be observed as
nearly simultaneously as possible.
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 ELECTRONIC POSITIONING
Errors in Electronic positioning
Several types of errors are associated with electronic
positioning but errors due to Multipath and range holes are
very significant in hydrographic surveying.
• Multipath
• This is position-fixing error caused by the effect of
reflections of carrier beams by water, ground surface
and or buildings near the ray path. The path of the direct
beam is shorter than the reflected beam. This cause a
difference in pulse time between the master and remote
stations.
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 To alleviate this problem:
• One has to lower the antenna of the remote shore
stations and/or modify their locations to minimise
background reflection.

• Avoid setting up shore stations close to buildings.

• This problem is common in harbours, where we have a

lot of buildings and ships.

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 Range holes/cancellation zones/ signal fade

• When signals are transmitted from the vessel to shore

stations some components of the received signal are
reflected

• They travel a longer distance than that of the direct beam.

• If the difference in path lengths between them equals an

even number of half-wavelength of the carrier wave,

• The energy content of the reflected beam component

1 cancels that of the direct beam.
 • The net effect is no distance reading measured. This
phenomenon is commonly known as Range Holes.

• The two most critical variables are antenna height and

carrier frequency.

• But since carrier frequency is usually fixed within a

small range, it will depend on the antenna height.

• Consequently, it may be necessary to adjust antenna

heights to prevent this problem within the area survey.
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 Position fixing afloat
• For any fix, one requires at least two lines of position (LOP)
obtained from a known source.
• These LOPs are intersected at the largest angle, possible for a
good geometry fix and have the smallest possible standard
deviation.
• Some redundancy is also made to eliminate gross errors and
reduce random errors. The fixing rate should be short so that
the vessel track is precisely defined.
• A vessel’s position is defined by the intersection of two or more
range circles centred on coordinated points ashore or of
hyperbolae of range difference.
• The issue is complicated by the dynamic situation since the
ranges or range differences must be obtained simultaneously
to give a fix at an instant
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 Range –Range measurement
•The mobile Mb (master) instrument,
transmits a coded interrogation pulse
towards the transponder beacon B1 at a
shore control station.
•The beacon receives this signal, decodes
it and responds by emitting a coded signal
towards the mobile.
•It also receives it at time t by measuring
the time elapse t between signal
transmission and reception of the response
from the beacon.
•The distance D between the mobile and
beacon is thus D =V (t), where V=velocity
of wave propagation.
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 Pseudo-range
measurements

•The mobile is passive whiles the slave

beacons are active.
•The beacon transmits signal to the
mobile (vessel).
•The time is recorded in its internal clock
as t1. The mobile receives the signal, t
seconds after the time t1 of its clock, with
t shift relative to beacon clock.
•The pseudo range (PR1) is computed.
•The path time is: R1 / Vp = t +t
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 • The following have been measured: PR1 = t. VP = R1 –
VP. t
• Where: PR1 = pseudo range
Mb = Mobile
B1 = Beacon
R1 = Mb – B1 (distance)
t = term resulting from clock shift.
• This measurement is called a pseudo-distance
(pseudo-range), as it is not directly a measurement of
the distance separating the beacon from the mobile.
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 Circular mode
•The active master is installed in the
vessel which is mobile.
•The remotes are called slaves 1 and
2 and are deplored ashore and are
phase locked to the master
instrument.
The master instrument (A) emits a
coded pulse train at time tE. This time
is recorded in memory at A.
The two (2) slave stations receive the
train of pulses and decode them.
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 • The individual slave stations then emit their own coded
signals which in turn are received by the mobile.
• The LOP’s associated with the slave stations are
concentric circles centred on each shore slave station.
• Examples of instrument that use circular mode are
Trident and SR3 Syledis.
• R R 1 = R 1 + e1
• R R 2 = R2 + e2
• The circles produced here are lines of zero phase
difference. When additional beacons are available, their
measurements will improve the quality of the accuracy of
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the fix.
 ADVANTAGES
• There is no connection required between the beacons.
• They are totally independent except for the
synchronisation of the transmission periods.
• A minimum of two transponder beacons only is required.

DRAWBACKS
• The mobile should be active that is should be able to
transmit signals.
• The beacons can respond to a limited number of mobiles.

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 Hyperbolic mode
•Makes use of pseudo –range
measurements.
• All the beacons/slave stations are
arranged to constitute a minimum network
of 3 beacons with the master beacon (BM)
acting as a synchronizer for the whole
network.
•The master beacon is placed at shore with
the slave stations
•The mobile is passive and needs a
receiver to detect the phase, time and
distance differences between the signals
received from the beacons at shore which
are coordinated stations.
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 • The mobile receives three signals: that from the
master beacon and those transmitted by the two
slave beacons.
• As the mobile clock features a time shift t relative
to that of the master beacon, three pseudo-ranges
can be observed.
• The LOP’s are hyperbolae, being contours of phase,
time or distance difference. Examples of hyperbolic
mode operation are Syledis SR3 and Toran.
• The introduction of the distances between beacons
(i.e. R1M and R2M from figure32) is observed in the
pseudo-ranges of the beacons B1 and B2.
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 ADVANTAGES
• There is no transmission required for the mobile since it
is passive.
• Unrestricted number of mobiles can use the network.
DRAWBACKS
• Connections between all beacons are imposed to
constitute the network.
• Three beacons at least are required for the connection.
• There is an increased positioning error as compared to
the circular mode, when geometry is unfavourable.
• Small angular measurements are not required.
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 An example of three equally-spaced stations
viewed from the mobile under an angle V with a
mean quadratic error of 1m on each
measurement, have a mean quadratic error of the
fix as:

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 Assessment
1. Explain the mode of operation of any position-fixing system
if you have at least three slave stations. State the merits and
demerits of this operation.
2. Explain how position fixing method of circular mode is done.
State its advantages and disadvantages.
3. Explain the method of location by Satellite mode.
4. Describe the working principles of a Trident System, stating
its usefulness and drawbacks.
5. Explain any two errors associated with electronic positioning.
6. Explain briefly why you would prefer to use a Trident position
system to a Toran system when operating from a small
angle.
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 1. The stations CDP form a triangle with coordinates of C being E C
= 800 m and NC = 1500 m and coordinates of D being ED = 1200 m and
ND =1000 m. If angle CDP being 80° 40´ and angle DCP being 50° 20´,
determine the following:

i. The distance between station C and the vessel P?

ii. The distance between station D and the vessel P?
iii. The bearing of the line DP?
iv. The coordinates of the vessel P?

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1. Determine the coordinates of a vessel P if the distance between two stations A
and B is 3.2 Km and the bearing AB is 50° 40’. The stations ABP form a
triangle with angle BAP being 60° 10’ and ABP being 30° 50’.Assume the
coordinates of A are EA = 1000m, NA = 800m.
ANS (EA = 2533.13m, NA = 216.60m)
2. In order to locate the position of a boat (P), observations were made with a
Theodolite to three shore stations A, B and C. The angles APB and BPC were
found to be 50° 56’ and 27° 30’ respectively. From the plan, AB and BC were
found to be 450 m and 220 m, while the angle ABC was measured as 163 °18’.
Determine the distances of P from A, B and C.
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 Thank You

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Jan 2014