GCPs vs RTK: Do You Still Need Ground Control Points?

RTK-enabled drones have made high accuracy more accessible, leading many pilots to ask whether ground control points are still necessary. The short answer: for professional deliverables, GCPs still matter.

What RTK does

RTK (real-time kinematic) positioning corrects the drone's camera positions during flight, improving the relative and often absolute accuracy of your map without placing targets on the ground.

What GCPs add

GCPs provide an independent, ground-truthed reference. They let you verify absolute accuracy, catch systematic errors (such as vertical bias), and produce results you can defend for survey, engineering, and legal use. RTK alone gives you accuracy; GCPs let you prove it.

Best practice: use both

Many professionals fly RTK and still place a few GCPs as checkpoints to validate the result. If the RTK solution drifts or the base setup has an error, your independent checkpoints will reveal it before it reaches a client.

When ground control matters most

Use GCPs whenever the deliverable must meet a stated accuracy spec, when working over large or high-relief sites, or when results may be scrutinized. High-contrast targets like our weighted GCPs and checkered targets are quick to deploy, and our retro-reflective LiDAR targets serve the same role for LiDAR scans. More in the GCP FAQ.