Precision from Above: How Helios Visions Used Swift Navigation’s RTK Service to Power Drone-Based Environmental Cleanup

When traditional RTK isn’t an option, Swift’s cloud-based RTK keeps drone operations moving with centimeter precision.

When environmental challenges threaten a sensitive river ecosystem, speed and precision are essential. Our team was recently tasked with supporting an emergency environmental cleanup project that required high-accuracy mapping of a waterway and its surrounding shoreline.

The challenge? We needed centimeter-level positioning to guide field crews, but our ground-based RTK system couldn’t be deployed. Setting up a fixed base station wasn’t possible in the tight, shifting conditions along the river and much of our work took place directly from boats.

That’s where Swift Navigation’s Skylark Precise Positioning Service made the difference.

The Challenge: Mapping Without a Ground Base

In traditional drone surveying, achieving survey-grade accuracy means placing ground control points or operating a local RTK base station. But for this project:

• The cleanup area stretched for several miles along a winding waterway.
• Ground control placement was impractical in many sections due to terrain and safety concerns.
• Base station range limitations meant we’d lose correction data partway through operations.

In this emergency scenario, we needed to be highly mobile. Setting up and breaking down base stations wasn’t an option due to time limitations.

The Solution: Cloud-Based RTK from Swift Navigation

Our decision was clear to go with Swift Navigation’s Skylark Nx RTK service for our drone operations.

“Swift Navigation was critical for us to complete this mission with RTK precision. We needed to be extremely mobile in this emergency. Setting up and breaking down base stations was not an option due to time limitations. We decided to go with Swift’s Skylark Precise Positioning Service for our drone operations. This not only allowed us to have a mobile RTK connection, but it was so good that we were able to take off and land with a converged RTK connection from a small boat. It worked in challenging environments.” – Tyler Gibson, Co-Founder, Helios Visions

With Skylark, we streamed corrections directly from Swift Navigation’s cloud-based Virtual Reference Station network to our RTK-enabled drone via a cellular link. This gave us:

• 1–2 cm positioning accuracy without any base station.
• Immediate convergence times, allowing mapping to start right after takeoff.
• Full mobility launching from any point along the river.
• Reliable performance in challenging environments, including dense tree canopy edges and varying weather conditions.

“Skylark is architected for just these types of scenarios where maximum precision is required, but setting up a local base station is impractical. Our advanced atmospheric modeling and professionally run network infrastructure provide the most reliable corrections service in the industry. We’re proud to have contributed to this emergency environmental cleanup project.” – Marwan Ramadan, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Swift Navigation

Why Precision Mattered

Accurate geospatial data allowed our team to:

• Map debris fields and impacted zones so crews could prioritize work.
• Measure shoreline changes to assess ongoing environmental impacts.
• Track cleanup progress over multiple weeks with repeatable flight paths.
• Integrate with GIS datasets for environmental reports and compliance requirements.

When working in fragile environments, every centimeter matters. Precise data means better decisions and better protection for ecosystems.

Technology That Works Where Others Can’t

By combining RTK-enabled drones with corrections from Skylark, we created a flexible, mobile, and high-accuracy mapping workflow that worked flawlessly in areas where traditional RTK fails.

In environmental projects where ground-based infrastructure isn’t an option, rivers, wetlands, and remote coastlines, cloud-based RTK corrections unlock a new level of capability.

When the mission is urgent, the terrain is unforgiving, and time is short, mobility and precision win the day. With Swift Navigation, we had both.