A Virtual Base Station (VBS) is a GNSS processing technique designed to enhance positioning accuracy in real-time kinematic (RTK) and post-processing applications. Instead of relying on a single, fixed physical base station, a VBS generates a virtual reference station near the rover’s location. This approach reduces positioning errors caused by atmospheric disturbances and improves overall system precision.
How VBS works?
The VBS technique operates by utilizing a network of GNSS base stations and a central processing server:
- Network of Base Stations – Multiple GNSS base stations continuously collect raw observation data and transmit it to a central server.
- Interpolation & Corrections – The server processes this data, interpolating corrections and creating a virtual reference station that is computationally positioned close to the rover.
- Minimized Errors – By placing the virtual base station near the rover, the system significantly reduces ionospheric and tropospheric errors, improving RTK accuracy, especially for long baselines.
This method is widely used in surveying, mapping, and precision agriculture, where high-accuracy GNSS data is required.
Virtual base station now available in Qinertia
SBG Systems releases the Virtual Base Station (VBS) feature in its in-house post-processing software called Qinertia. Geospatial professionals benefit from an optimal centimetric position accuracy in all their projects, even for corridor mapping and in poorly covered RTK areas.
SBG Systems created Qinertia as a GNSS and INS post-processing software. It gives access to offline RTK corrections from more than 12,000 base stations located in 164 countries.
Trajectory and orientation are then greatly improved by processing inertial data and raw GNSS observables in forward and backward directions.
The best solution to maximize corridor survey accuracy
Qinertia PPK software now includes a brand new Virtual Base Stations (VBS) functionality. The VBS consists in computing a virtual network around your project in which position accuracy is maximized, homogeneous, and robust as for PPK short baseline.
Surveyors can collect data far from base stations or over large areas , making it ideal for corridor mapping. After the mission, Qinertia chooses the most relevant reference stations, build a virtual network, and bring your project to the centimetric accuracy with no jump on accuracy, nor convergence effects, even in urban areas.
One PPK software for all your projects
Qinertia has always been designed to support all GNSS receivers and third-party IMUs. SBG Systems has worked very hard to offer a VBS that can take the most out of any GNSS receivers from different brands, models, with different configurations or constellations, and even with different coordinate systems.
It automatically adjusts the VBS network to compensate for any base station position inaccuracy and provides full quality control indicators to assess the expected accuracy and reliability.
Our Qinertia VBS technology can mix users base stations with permanent network base stations to improve accuracy in remote locations.
Even with this sophisticated VBS computation, Qinertia stays the fastest Post-processing software because it parallelizes the calculation of every base station in the virtual network and simultaneously process the Forward and Backward computations.
A typical UAV survey can be computed in less than a minute, and VBS computation doesn’t mean increasing your project time!
Automatically select the best positioning – user keeps the control
Qinertia is highly flexible and intelligent. It automatically selects the best positioning technology that apply to your project, whether it is a single base station mode, the Virtual Base Stations mode, or a Precise Point Positioning computation.
Control is still in the user’s hands: the user can manually choose the mode, take a base station away, add a new one, while Qinertia automatically re-check and re-computes all parameters simultaneously to validate the accuracy and consistency.
The user is invited to check every step, and can consult various quality control indicators such as separation, standard deviation, bias, scale factor, lever arm, as well as export statistics reports (RMS, min/max).
Advantages of VBS
✔ Improves Accuracy – Reduces spatial decorrelation errors, ensuring precise positioning.
✔ Enhances RTK Availability – Provides corrections even in areas where no nearby physical base station is present.
✔ Supports Long Baselines – Helps mitigate ionospheric errors over extended distances, making it ideal for large-scale applications.
Applications of VBS
VBS is widely used in surveying, mapping, precision agriculture, and geospatial applications, where high-accuracy GNSS data is essential. By leveraging virtual base stations, users can achieve more reliable and precise positioning even in challenging environments.
Take a look to some of this applications:
