One-Person Surveying vs Traditional Surveying: How LRTK Changes Cost, Accuracy, and Speed

Introduction

Surveying is an indispensable process on construction and civil engineering sites. In recent years, however, aging experienced surveyors and a shortage of younger technicians have led to a serious labor shortage, increasing interest in one-person surveying (also called “one-man surveying”). Traditionally performed by teams of two to three people, if surveying can be completed by a single person using advanced technology, it can reduce labor costs and improve efficiency. In fact, one-person surveying can not only substantially cut personnel expenses but also shorten working time while maintaining conventional levels of accuracy. This article compares traditional surveying methods and one-person surveying from the perspectives of cost, accuracy, and speed, and explains the benefits that the new surveying style—enabled by a smartphone and the RTK-GNSS device LRTK—brings to job sites.

The Need for “One-Person Surveying” Driven by Labor Shortages

Surveying is essential on civil engineering and construction sites for quality control and as-built verification. However, the industry-wide shortage of personnel and aging of technicians have increased the need to cover many sites with fewer people. In particular, conventional surveying, typically performed by an experienced surveyor paired with an assistant, is becoming harder to staff. At some sites, work is delayed because “there aren’t enough people who can survey,” highlighting strong demand for labor reduction. Against this backdrop, efforts to complete surveying tasks that used to require multiple people with a single person are attracting attention.

Challenges of Traditional Surveying: Personnel, Time, and Human Error

Traditional surveying uses equipment such as total stations and levels and generally requires two or more staff. Typically, one person operates the instrument while another holds a staff (measuring rod) or prism at a distant point, a two-person team. Large surveys may require a three-person team with additional assistants, making the work labor- and effort-intensive.

There is also inefficiency in terms of time. When a site is large with many survey points, teams must move around the site to measure numerous points, and surveying alone can take a full day or more. After field measurements, there remains office work—plotting on drawings, quantity calculations, and report preparation—which prevents immediate use of that day’s survey results. Delayed verification of survey data can postpone discovery of errors, leading to rework and risks that affect the overall project schedule.

Moreover, traditional methods carry risks of human error and the tendency for tasks to become dependent on specific individuals. For example, mistakes often occur when numbers are handwritten on paper and later transcribed, or when photos fail to capture location information. Operating sophisticated surveying instruments relies heavily on experience and intuition, concentrating work with certain skilled personnel. Consequently, when experienced staff are absent, sites can be stalled waiting for surveying to be done. These issues have increased demand on sites for labor-saving and efficiency improvements in surveying.

Realizing One-Person Surveying Through Technological Innovation

Recent technological innovations have offered solutions to this problem. By combining smartphones with high-precision GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), an era in which a single person can complete surveying is coming into view. A representative example is the ultra-compact smartphone-mounted RTK-GNSS receiver called “LRTK.” LRTK is a device attached to smartphones like the iPhone; weighing only about 165 g and about 1 cm thick—small enough to fit in a pocket—it is capable of centimeter-level positioning. It connects to smartphones via Bluetooth or Lightning and effectively transforms the phone into a high-precision surveying instrument.

Because GNSS surveying measures absolute positions on the Earth’s coordinate system with satellites as references, it is powerful for wide-area topographic surveys and for understanding positional relationships between distant points. Even in areas with poor line of sight, GNSS can provide positioning if the sky above is open, making surveying in mountainous or obstacle-dense sites—previously difficult—more feasible.

Conventional RTK surveying equipment has often been bulky and expensive—fixed antennas weighing several kilograms and radio devices requiring specialist setup and expertise. But with the palm-sized LRTK, such setup hassles are dramatically reduced, and the burden of carrying equipment is minimized. No complex setup is required: once on site, simply power up the smartphone and LRTK to be ready. With the LRTK app, you can receive correction information from satellites to improve real-time positioning accuracy, enabling centimeter-level surveying anywhere in Japan. Its ease of use allows anyone to start centimeter-accuracy positioning without special expertise, which is revolutionary.

This smartphone + GNSS surveying style (smartphone surveying) not only enables “one-person surveying” but also brings advantages over conventional methods in many respects. Below, we compare one-person surveying (using LRTK) and traditional surveying in terms of cost, accuracy, and speed, and look in detail at the benefits.

Cost Comparison: Reducing Labor and Equipment Costs

The biggest appeal of one-person surveying is its cost-saving effect. If surveying that used to require two to three people can be done by one, personnel costs on site can be cut to less than half. In a situation of labor shortage, simply reducing survey personnel has significant value. For example, at a civil engineering site, as-built measurements that used to take two people a full day were completed by one person in a few hours after introducing LRTK. In that case, work time was reduced by more than 70%, and labor costs were greatly reduced.

Equipment costs can also be reduced. Equipping a site with expensive, large instruments like total stations or laser scanners requires a large investment. In contrast, a small GNSS receiver like LRTK paired with a smartphone can achieve high-precision positioning, potentially lowering initial investment costs. LRTK is especially attractive for local governments and small-to-medium construction companies due to its reasonable price. In practice, some organizations have reduced costs by bringing tasks in-house after adopting LRTK that they previously outsourced to surveying firms.

Furthermore, one-person surveying can reduce costs associated with rework and additional surveys. Because data can be shared and checked in real time on site, the risk of later discovering “missed measurements” is reduced. Fewer additional surveying days means savings in labor and time. In this way, one-person surveying using LRTK delivers cost benefits in both personnel and equipment, enabling more surveying work within limited budgets.

Accuracy Comparison: Centimeter-Level Precision Enabled by RTK

Some may wonder, “Can surveying done by one person really be accurate?” However, by using RTK-GNSS technology represented by LRTK, one-person surveying can achieve accuracy that matches or even exceeds conventional methods.

Standard GNSS positioning (such as built-in smartphone GPS) can have errors on the order of meters, but RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) corrects error factors between a base station and a rover to provide real-time centimeter-level positioning accuracy. LRTK supports these RTK corrections and can receive augmentation signals (CLAS) from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan’s Continuously Operating Reference Station network and Japan’s quasi-zenith satellite “Michibiki,” enabling centimeter-class positioning nationwide. Therefore, one-person surveying can provide sufficient accuracy for as-built management and comparison with design drawings.

Compared with traditional tape-measure methods or optical surveying instruments, RTK surveying’s accuracy is comparable. In fact, LRTK can collect high-density point data or increase the number of survey points, potentially improving overall site comprehension accuracy. For example, where conventional manual surveying might thin out points across a wide area, LRTK allows one person to comprehensively scan and obtain detailed 3D data. Point cloud data enables checking details that might have been overlooked before, reducing missed or unrecorded measurements and thereby improving quality.

Additionally, the LRTK app automatically records photos’ positions and orientations along with positioning data. There is no need to write notes on paper; all data are stored digitally, greatly reducing the risk of recording mistakes or data loss. The reduction of human-error-induced inaccuracies is another reassurance regarding the accuracy of one-person surveying. Overall, one-person surveying using RTK technology can deliver results comparable to traditional surveying in both accuracy and data quality.

Speed Comparison: Operational Efficiency and Real-Time Sharing

One major advantage that one-person surveying brings to sites is the speed-up of surveying tasks. Traditional workflows—from planning through execution to post-processing—could take days, but with LRTK-based methods, it is increasingly possible to produce results on the same day.

Efficiency improves from the preparation stage onward. Without the need to carry and set up tripods and heavy equipment, surveying can begin immediately upon arrival. Moving between points is as simple as walking with a smartphone and recording successive points. There is no time spent on signaling or coordination with assistants, allowing agile measurement.

Moreover, data collected with the LRTK app can be instantly uploaded to the cloud and shared in real time with office staff away from the site. This enables stakeholders to check data as soon as measurements are completed and begin issuing additional instructions or analysis. Tasks that previously required returning to the office—such as drafting and quantity calculations—are increasingly automated and streamlined in the cloud. In short, one-person surveying allows you to use data immediately after measuring, accelerating the entire workflow.

There are real-world cases showing faster speeds after adopting LRTK. In the example of two people one day → one person a few hours, the shortened surveying lead time allowed subsequent construction steps to start earlier. In disaster response, municipalities that adopted LRTK reported that staff could quickly survey damaged areas and promptly record detailed conditions, shortening the time to begin drafting recovery plans. This high responsiveness is a strength of one-person surveying: being able to obtain data immediately when needed speeds up projects overall and enables flexible responses.

Changes and Benefits to Job Sites from One-Person Surveying

As the comparisons above show, introducing one-person surveying brings significant benefits in cost, accuracy, and speed. Labor reduction-driven cost savings are particularly important for an industry grappling with manpower shortages. In terms of accuracy, RTK technology ensures quality and, thanks to increased data volume, improves site visualization. Speed gains resolve delays and waiting times caused by surveying, contributing to greater overall construction efficiency.

One-person surveying also contributes to improved safety and flexibility. For example, surveying at heights or in hazardous areas previously required multiple people working carefully together; combined with drones or remote sensing, measurements can be made without sending people into danger. Being able to survey alone anytime means on-the-spot verification can be done at the necessary timing. Flexible, frequent surveying tied to site progress allows data accumulation that in turn improves site management accuracy and decision-making speed.

Furthermore, the LRTK smartphone app is designed to be intuitive, enabling users with limited surveying experience to become proficient in a short time. Because surveying know-how is embedded in the app, operations become standardized and certain precision can be achieved without relying on specific experts. Introducing such easy-to-use tools on site helps build a stable surveying system that does not depend on particular individuals.

The LRTK app also includes guidance (navigation) features to direct users to survey points. By entering target coordinates from design drawings, the phone screen shows the direction and remaining distance to the target, allowing staking and layout tasks to be performed accurately by a single person. In AR (augmented reality) mode, virtual stakes or lines are overlaid on the camera view so users can mark positions even at unfamiliar sites. This smart guidance capability—enabling staking and surveying without assistants—is a major advantage.

Conclusion: The Future of Surveying Changed by LRTK

From comparing one-person surveying and traditional surveying, it should be clear how much benefit the latest technologies bring to job sites. Using a smartphone-mounted RTK-GNSS device like LRTK makes it possible for a task that previously required two to three people to be handled efficiently and with high precision by one person. The advantages—reduced personnel costs, ensured accuracy and quality, and dramatically improved speed—mean that the surveying process itself now directly contributes to increased productivity on site.

One-person surveying using LRTK is already being introduced in many places. In disaster response, it has proven effective as a way to immediately record damage digitally on site, and early-adopter municipalities report significant contributions to early recovery and cost savings. Such success stories are driving broader adoption of smartphone-based one-person surveying.

By moving beyond traditional methods and promoting labor reduction and digitalization, the DX (digital transformation) of construction sites will certainly accelerate. If you are considering improving productivity at your site by implementing one-person surveying, why not consider adopting LRTK, which allows anyone with a smartphone to perform high-precision surveying easily? Embrace the latest technologies to gain advantages in cost, accuracy, and speed, and bring the future of surveying to your sites as soon as possible.

For more details and case studies on LRTK, please see the [LRTK official website](https://www.lrtk.lefixea.com/).