Introducing the CHCNAV i93 GNSS Rover

Here at Sealand we’re excited to introduce to you a product which we believe is a huge turning point for GNSS users, this is the CHC Nav i93 Visual RTK Rover. The i93 was released by the Chinese brand in April 2022 and is their first GNSS rover to include both Auto-IMU and a dual-camera for visual features. The compact and light housing takes care of both a radio and cellular modem, helping the i93 fit into any site scenario.

Let’s take a closer look at the i93.

Visually, the i93 is a very simple piece of kit to look at. It features a 1.1” OLED Colour Display, 2 LED and 2 physical buttons. The OLED display provides information such as satellite count, battery status, and receiver mode. The receiver is compact in design, this is partially due to its internal battery which is charged via USB-C cable that on a full charge can give you a massive 36-hour battery run! Moving onto the cameras… the receiver houses both 2 MP & 5 MP cameras. The 2 MP camera sits on the underside of the receiver, the 5 MP camera sits directly opposite the display and buttons.

The most common thing I hear when talking to people about the i93 is ‘how is having a GPS receiver with cameras going to help me any more than one without? Surely that’s too advanced for beginners. I understand the thought behind this, if GPS was meant to work alongside a camera from the get-go, then wouldn’t all brands offer this as standard? We’re also not educated with this kind of technology.

The addition of dual cameras helps to make your task super simple, especially setting out. Cameras enable users to access the ‘Visual Stakeout’ feature…

The visual stakeout feature displays points/lines on to a live camera feed, making locating design features super straight forward. At a distance you’ll view from the side camera, and upon further approach to the entity the view will change to the underneath camera which sights directly down the pole.

A slightly more specialist feature that the i93 offers is ‘Visual Survey’ – this combines the i93 with Landstar 8’s photogrammetric function to output coordinates on a video. Imagine you’re doing a survey along a riverbank, and you reach an overhead bridge; rather than missing out information whilst in an area where we can’t receive position information, we can take a video of under the bridge whilst approaching and later pinpoint coordinates onto the video!

The i93 also has an auto-initialising IMU sensor built in, which offers you a tilt angle of up to 60°. It provides audible prompts to let you know then IMU is initialised

Like all things, as many good points we have there are also a few things we’ve pointed out that leave a little more room for improvement. For CHC Nav, its Landstar 8. Landstar 8 is a very impressive bit of software, it features everything and more you’d be looking for to help you out in the field...However, our feedback is that it’s not as slick to use as the likes of Topcon Field or Trimble Access.

Now, we know that CHC aren’t the only brand to come up with these concepts, it comes up against the Leica GS18i and Trimble SiteVision. However, the most impressing thing about the i93 is the quality you’ll receive at such an affordable price point. For a GPS Kit priced below £10,000 + VAT, half the price of its competitors it seems like a no brainer!

For further information on the CHC Nav i93, and to find out how it can transform your work flow; call us on 01244 821777