One-Man Surveying Revolution｜The Key to Improved Work Efficiency Is LRTK

In recent years, the conventional wisdom of surveying is undergoing a major shift. The style known as "one-man surveying," which allows a single person to complete surveying tasks without relying on others, is attracting attention on job sites and represents a true surveying revolution. Driven by technological advances and the need to solve on-site challenges, an era has arrived in which tasks that once required two or more people can be performed by one. At the heart of this efficiency boost is the latest solution called LRTK. This article explains in detail why one-man surveying is in demand now, the problems with traditional surveying, how one-man surveying works and its effects, and the innovative technology of LRTK and the changes it brings to the field. Finally, we outline a concrete workflow for solo surveying using LRTK and recommend adopting this revolutionary approach on future surveying sites.

Why is one-man surveying needed now?

The construction and civil engineering industries are facing severe labor shortages and an aging of experienced technicians. Traditionally, surveying was conducted in teams of two or more, but with fewer young workers available, companies are being forced to cover many sites with a limited number of personnel. Rising labor costs and work-style reforms also demand methods that achieve high efficiency with fewer people. Against this backdrop, the idea that "if one person can handle the surveying, that would be ideal" has spread, and interest in one-man surveying has grown year by year.

Furthermore, government-led *i-Construction* initiatives and the construction industry's DX (digital transformation) are accelerating this trend. As measures to improve on-site efficiency through ICT advance, ICT-driven one-man surveying is expected to address both labor shortages and productivity improvement. With technological innovation and industry needs aligned, now is precisely the time one-man surveying is required.

Traditional surveying work and its challenges

First, let's summarize the problems of conventional surveying. Old-fashioned surveying typically involved teams operating heavy equipment, requiring time and effort. The main issues that arose included:

• Labor and cost burden: Surveying required at least two people, sometimes three or more (for example, with a total station one person operates the instrument while another holds the prism at a distant point). This created a large labor cost burden and was a heavy load for sites chronically short of staff.

• Long working hours: On large sites with many survey points, teams often spent an entire day moving around the site to take measurements. After surveying, returning to the office to plot points on drawings or perform quantity calculations meant post-processing took time, lengthening the overall lead time.

• Difficulty using data in real time: It was inefficient that data collected on site could not be immediately used for construction or decision-making. Survey results had to be taken back and processed before they were usable, and measurement errors or omissions were often discovered late, requiring re-surveying.

• Risk of human error: Transcribing measurements into paper field books or later linking photos with survey points invites mistakes. Writing errors, mixing up photos, or failing to record location information are common human errors.

• Dependence on skilled personnel: Operating advanced instruments like total stations requires specialized skills, making teams dependent on certain veterans. If such a person was absent, work could stall due to a "waiting for surveying" situation, resulting in task personification.

Against such traditional surveying methods—characterized by staff shortages, inefficiency, and error risk—one-man surveying that can be completed by a single operator has emerged as a potential solution to on-site problems.

What is one-man surveying? Basic mechanism and benefits of introduction

One-man surveying is, as the name implies, a method in which surveying work is completed by a single operator without a human assistant at the instrument. This has become possible thanks to recent leaps in surveying technology. For example, the advent of automatically tracking robotic total stations allows the instrument to follow a prism automatically, enabling a single person to measure angles and distances alone. Advances in GNSS positioning technology (satellite positioning) are also a major factor. In particular, RTK-GNSS (real-time kinematic positioning) combines corrections from a rover and a reference station to achieve centimeter-level positioning accuracy in real time, enabling one person to measure positions with accuracy comparable to traditional surveying.

Introducing one-man surveying brings many benefits. If one person can perform the work, it reduces labor and thereby cuts personnel costs, and eliminates the need to wait for someone else to be available, allowing measurements whenever needed. This reduces wasted waiting time, shortens schedules, and enables faster decision-making. Digital technologies enable on-the-spot acquisition and sharing of highly accurate data, reducing paper field books and manual errors and producing high-quality survey deliverables. The new norm that "if one person can measure accurately, that's preferable" is spreading, and the productivity gains from adopting one-man surveying directly boost overall site performance.

The emergence of LRTK and its innovativeness

A revolutionary tool that strongly promotes one-man surveying is LRTK. LRTK is an ultra-compact RTK-GNSS device developed by Refixia Inc., a startup originating from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and it effectively turns a smartphone into a high-precision surveying instrument. Housed in a small enclosure weighing about 165 g and about 1 cm thick, it contains a high-performance antenna and battery. Simply attach it to an iPhone, iPad, or other smartphone (using a dedicated case or magnets) and connect via Bluetooth or Lightning, and the smartphone instantly becomes a surveying device capable of centimeter-level positioning. Where surveys once required erecting tripods and setting up equipment weighing several kilograms, they can now be completed with a device that fits in your pocket plus a smartphone. It truly ushers in the era of "smartphone surveying."

LRTK's innovation is not limited to its ease of use. It supports advanced RTK methods and, within Japan, can utilize the Geospatial Information Authority's network of continuously operating reference stations via network RTK (Ntrip) or the free centimeter-level augmentation signals (CLAS) provided by the quasi-zenith satellite system "Michibiki" to correct positioning errors in real time to within a few centimeters anywhere in the country. Even in mountainous areas or disaster sites with no mobile network coverage, as long as the sky is open, it can receive correction data directly from satellites and achieve high-precision positioning. Despite its simple smartphone-powered and controlled design, it includes a battery capable of hours of continuous measurement, so bringing only a smartphone and LRTK to a site is enough to start centimeter-precision surveying immediately, overturning past conventions. LRTK enables tasks from layout/setting-out and as-built management to even 3D surveying to be handled by a single person, making it the key technology behind the one-man surveying revolution.

LRTK technologies that balance accuracy and speed (RTK-GNSS, smartphone integration, AR features, etc.)

LRTK can deliver both high accuracy and operational speed because it skillfully combines cutting-edge technologies. Key technical features include:

• Centimeter accuracy with RTK-GNSS: LRTK's primary feature is improved GNSS positioning accuracy. Typical smartphone GPS has errors of around 5–10 m, but LRTK reduces this to a few centimeters by applying RTK corrections. By analyzing signals from multiple satellites and comparing them to reference station data to remove error factors, operations that require strict precision—such as boundary surveys and as-built checks—can be handled by a single person. This is far more accurate than standalone GPS or manual tape-measure methods and reliably meets the precision required for quality assurance.

• Ease and mobility via smartphone integration: No special controller or complex setup is required; just attach the device to your everyday smartphone and launch the app to be ready to survey. It typically takes only tens of seconds at a new site to capture satellites and achieve an RTK fixed solution (Fix). The dedicated app's interface is simple and intuitive, so technicians with limited experience operating specialized instruments can become proficient quickly. Surveying know-how is consolidated and standardized within the app, enabling anyone to consistently obtain stable results. Because each worker can carry a device in their pocket, the mobility to take measurements as needed is outstanding. For example, using an optional lightweight pole (monopod) makes achieving vertical accuracy easier, and an app button can set height (offset) corrections from the ground to the receiver. It is vastly more user-friendly than traditional surveying instruments and dramatically improves on-site agility.

• AR navigation to support solo stake setting: The LRTK smartphone app includes a coordinate navigation feature. For preset target coordinates, it displays in real time the distance and direction you need to move from your current position (for example, "5 cm east", "10 cm north"). By holding the smartphone and making small adjustments as instructed, staking-out tasks that formerly required multiple people can be executed accurately by one person. The app can also overlay guidance on the phone’s camera view with AR, displaying virtual stake markers or arrows on the screen at the target location. As you approach the target, the marker locks into place, allowing even first-time users to identify exact installation points without confusion. This AR navigation feature intuitively guides less-experienced users to target coordinates and strongly supports solo staking and layout work.

• 3D point cloud measurement via LiDAR scanning: With LRTK, a single operator can easily perform surrounding 3D measurements. By linking with an iPhone's LiDAR sensor and camera, walking around the terrain or structures while scanning yields high-accuracy 3D point cloud data with attached position coordinates. Thanks to the precise positioning provided by LRTK, the acquired point cloud can be used directly as an accurate three-dimensional model of current conditions. It efficiently covers wide areas and captures details that manual surveying might miss. Point clouds are useful for overall as-built understanding, volume calculations, and displacement monitoring. Whereas specialized laser scanners or drone surveys required expensive equipment and time-consuming alignment, LRTK enables anyone to perform speedy point cloud surveys with just a smartphone.

• Automatic logging of positioning data and photo linkage: Survey results captured by the LRTK app are automatically saved digitally. Pressing the measure button records latitude, longitude, and elevation with timestamps and satellite lock status, and points are automatically numbered and listed. There's no need to transcribe numbers into paper field books. Photos taken with the smartphone are automatically geotagged with position and orientation, making it immediately clear which location and direction each photo corresponds to. This prevents transcription errors, missing records, or failure to link photos to points, ensuring complete and accurate recording of on-site data.

• Real-time utilization via cloud sharing: Another strength of LRTK is the ability to quickly share positioning data to the cloud from the site. With a one-tap operation in the app, coordinate lists and point cloud data can be uploaded immediately to the cloud, and colleagues in the office can view results before the surveyor returns. Uploaded data can be inspected on the web-based LRTK cloud service. Points are plotted on a map and each point’s coordinates, notes, and photos can be viewed. 3D point clouds can be displayed in a browser, enabling detailed understanding without being on site. No special software is required—sharing a URL is enough for clients or remote teams to access the latest information. Being able to put measured data to immediate use prevents rework and speeds up decision-making. Connecting the field and the office seamlessly accelerates the entire workflow, including post-survey data utilization.

As described above, LRTK enables the rapid, easy acquisition and sharing of high-accuracy data through the latest technologies, supporting productivity improvements in one-man surveying.

How LRTK changes on-site operations (assumed scenarios)

What changes on-site when LRTK is introduced? Below we present how one-man surveying transforms operations, with hypothetical scenarios and case examples.

In one construction site case, introducing LRTK reportedly led to dramatic efficiency gains in surveying tasks. A measurement process that previously took two people a full day to complete for as-built (progress) measurement was finished by one person in a few hours after introduction. That translated to roughly a 70% or more reduction in working time, significantly cutting labor costs. Because LRTK obtains high-density survey data in real time, small or hard-to-reach areas were measured without omission, preventing rework due to missed points. Survey results were shared to the cloud immediately, allowing supervisors to review data and issue instructions before the surveyor returned to the office, smoothing coordination between field and headquarters.

Local government use cases are also emerging. For example, Fukui City was an early adopter of the LRTK system in 2023 for disaster recovery site surveys. Municipal staff could start smartphone surveying on the spot upon discovering damaged areas, eliminating repeated trips between the field and the office and allowing more detailed damage records to be collected in less time than previously. This sped up the planning of recovery measures and improved initial response times. In this way, one-man surveying that enables immediate measurement when needed is proving useful in disaster response and infrastructure inspection as well.

Introducing one-man surveying transforms site operations. Even if the surveying team is occupied with other tasks, if one person brings LRTK to the site, surveying can be done immediately. The old delays like "let's call the surveying crew later" or "wait for the specialist surveyor to arrive" disappear, and the agility to obtain necessary data when needed increases overall site efficiency and flexibility. As a result, shorter schedules, more thorough quality control, and faster on-site decision-making are just some of the positive effects, and LRTK-driven one-man surveying fundamentally reshapes on-site operations.

Implementation steps: workflow for solo surveying using LRTK

As shown so far, LRTK strongly supports solo surveying. So how does one-man surveying with LRTK proceed in practice? Below are the basic steps.

• Survey preparation: Before starting work on site, attach the LRTK device to your smartphone and launch the dedicated app. Check the current positioning mode (GNSS reception status) and the reception state of correction information in the app, and ensure centimeter-level accuracy is achieved (i.e., an RTK "Fix" solution has been obtained). No special equipment setup is required; power on the device and start the app and you’ll be ready in a short time.

• Measuring points (measure): Move to the point you want to measure with the device and press the app’s "measure" button at that point. For example, to measure a ground point, place the pole tip (spike) on the point and tap the button on the smartphone screen. At that moment, high-precision latitude, longitude, and elevation data are obtained. If there are multiple points, simply move and tap repeatedly to record each measurement.

• Recording data (record): When you press the measure button, the positioning data is automatically saved in the smartphone. The record includes date/time, point number, and positioning status (for example: Fix = high precision or Float = reduced precision). The LRTK app performs coordinate transformation to Japan’s plane rectangular coordinate system and automatically calculates geoid height, so you can obtain practical coordinate values on site. You can assign names to points or add notes as needed, enabling detailed point management without paper field books.

• Uploading and sharing to the cloud (share): After measuring a set of points, upload the data to the cloud with a single tap from the app. The app links with web services such as the LRTK cloud, and the positioning information acquired on site is instantly plotted on an online map. Colleagues in the office or clients can view the latest survey results in a browser, eliminating the need to bring data back on USB or transcribe handwritten notes. Information can thus be shared seamlessly between the site and the office.

• Data utilization: Survey data shared to the cloud can be used directly for drawing creation, volume calculations, report preparation, and other follow-up tasks. For example, you can measure distances between two points or compute the area of an enclosed region on the cloud, or download point clouds to import into design software—making handoff to subsequent processes smooth. Photos taken on site are saved with precise location information, allowing later cross-referencing of photos and survey points when reviewing conditions.

With this workflow, LRTK allows all steps from measuring → recording → sharing → utilization to be completed by a single person. Since data can be shared immediately after measurement, you can move directly to the next task and significantly shorten overall lead time. There’s no cumbersome post-processing or waiting to pass information—once you experience this seamless workflow connecting the field and office, it becomes indispensable.

Conclusion and recommendation for adoption

The one-man surveying revolution underway in the surveying world is a boon for industries struggling with labor shortages. Introducing cutting-edge technologies like LRTK enables safe, high-precision surveying by a single person, simultaneously reducing staffing costs and improving operational efficiency. Without relying on manpower-intensive approaches, digital tools allow precise data to be acquired, shared, and used immediately, dramatically raising productivity and quality control on site.

LRTK is designed with a low barrier to entry. The dedicated app is provided for free and the device itself is far more affordable than conventional large GNSS surveying equipment. There is no need to purchase expensive dedicated controllers or permanently installed systems—if you have a smartphone, you can start solo surveying today. Pricing is within reach for small and medium-sized companies and municipalities, making it realistic to equip each worker with a device. LRTK overturns the old norm of "one surveying kit per team" and creates an environment in which each worker can measure whenever necessary.

By enabling greater efficiency and flexibility, one-man surveying makes it possible to carry out measurements and recordkeeping that were previously postponed because of staff shortages. This revolution has already begun on sites, and many are noticing the difference from traditional methods. As the norms of surveying change, consider introducing LRTK-based one-man surveying to your sites. Adopting the latest technologies will strengthen on-site capabilities, balance accuracy and efficiency, and give you a decisive advantage in next-generation construction practices. Embrace the one-man surveying revolution and gain a significant edge in your future site operations.