Polytunnels and RTK navigation don't go together. That's what we're all told.
But I've never been one to do as I'm told, I wanted to find to for myself what would really happy. So...

I was onsite at the UPL’s Shray Hill development farm doing some work in the new orchard when I noticed they were building a very substantial polytunnel that had more metal work in the roof than usual.

And this gave me an idea. All that steel work would make a good challenge for the R150 robots RTK navigation.

Conventional wisdom, and indeed common sense, says, don’t use RTK under metal structures. You’ll get weird RTK signal bounce, there’ll be areas of RTK shadow and the robot will loose it’s connection and accuracy and probably blow up.

But what’s the reality?

I selected the central tunnel to make it as tricky for the RTK signal as possible and plotted a course, right down the middle.

And to add a little spice I mapped an exit route between the stout metal pillars. What could possibly go wrong??

Well, nothing! The XAG R150 was arrow straight, no wobbles or jitters, even under all the steel work.

It even found the door, although I did have to hold my breath as it took the tight turn.

Does XAG’s RTK work in Polytunnels. Hell yes!

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