Race course profiling of the cross country ski using kinematic GNSS

Abstract

We have measured the 3D course profile of a cross-country ski course at Vuokatti in Finland using a survey-grade real-time kinematic GPS, Trimble R8, which has millimeter-level positioning accuracy. We have also measured the course profile at the same time using three GPS/GNSS receivers, AT-H-02, Physilog4 and Galaxy S5, and compared the positioning accuracy with Trimble R8 as gold standard. The AT-H-02 is a portable post-processing kinematic GNSS receiver especially for sport purpose. The Physilog4 is a portable differential GPS and the Galaxy S5 is a smartphone with built-in assisted GNSS. From the measurement results it was found that only the AT-H-02 can measure the course profile with millimeter-level positioning accuracy as well as the Trimble R8. The Physilog4 and Galaxy S5 have a few-meter positioning accuracy, which is not enough for 3D course profile measurement of cross-country ski race.