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In-Class Exercise 13 [Mobile GIS]

This week we are going to use ESRI Arcpad and Collector products. While Arcpad has been around for over 15 years each product has its strengths and we're explore those by putting data on GPS devices and cell phones and go outside to map imaginary archaeological sites.

Tuesday: Arcpad discussion, data preparation, and fieldwork, some ESRI Collector work as well

Thursday: Revisit location with differentially corrected data and compare results in Collector

Tuesday class

We begin with a discussion of the goals, problems and potential of mobile GIS as I discussed in this article

 Tripcevich (2004). "Flexibility by Design: How mobile GIS meets the needs of archaeological survey" Cartography and GIS Vol 31, No. 3, pp 137-151.

The underlying mapping principles are presented nicely in this online course page (Penn State University)

How We Know Where We Are: Land Surveying, GPS, and Technology. Overview Links to an external site.

Where we'll learn about accuracy issues, PDOP and Differential Correction. 

Non-ESRI alterantives, open-source, etc.

 

Comparing Arcpad and Collector

Characteristics of both programs 

  • ESRI products
  • Support for Related Attribute Tables
  • Offline functionality with sync
  • Custom input forms

Platforms

  • Arcpad 
  • ESRI Arcpad 10 with Trimble GPSCorrect
  • available for Windows Mobile 5,6,6.5 (aka PocketPC) and Windows XP, 7, 8 (Desktop)
  • permits differential correction

ESRI Collector

  • Convenient, makes use of ArcGIS Online Portal and services

  • Collector available for iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android. Windows 8 Mobile and Windows 8 desktop coming soon.

  • modern interface

 

Workflow

ESRI Arcpad 10

Develop project in ArcGIS Desktop

Design around background and editable / syncable layers

Use Arcpad Desktop Manager "Get data for Arcpad" 

Design or modify forms in Arcpad Studio (Desktop)

Put data and custom forms on Arcpad device

On Trimble devices ensure GPSCorrect is functioning 

Conduct fieldwork

Return and save changes as well as GPSCorrect.SSF File

Use Trimble Pathfinder Office to differentially correct SSF file then use ShapeCorrect to update Shapefile vertex positions

 

ESRI Collector

Develop project in ArcGIS Desktop or Pro

Upload to ArcGIS Online or Cal-GISC.ArcGIS.com

Connect Collector to your Portal

Download maps data for offline work

Do fieldwork

Upload results to server