Integrating Trimble R8 Base Station for RTK Corrections with BlueBoat's Onboard GPS

Hi @tjrickey -
Welcome to the forums!
RTK setup is covered in the BlueBoat FAQ - did you see this information?

Any NMEA position stream can be parsed by the Navigator Autopilot. To receive the messages from a network-connected device simply configure the Autopilot parameters GPS_Type to NMEA, Serial2_Protocol to GPS, and verify no other Serial port # protocol is set to GPS. Finally, under Autopilot Firmware, Serial port Configuration, set Serial 2 to: udpin:0.0.0.0:27000. Then direct your UDP NMEA stream to the IP address of the BlueBoat. Note that these NMEA messages are required for navigation: RMC, GGA, VTG, HDT. This approach uses the ArduPilot driver to interpret the NMEA messages - you can also use the NMEA Injector in BlueOS, which has support for fewer messages. If using a serial connection to bring the NMEA position data to the Navigator serial port 3 or 4, set the appropriate Serial# Protocol parameter to GPS and restart the autopilot. NMEA messages should be sent at 10hz or faster.

In answer to your questions - you’ll first want to configure the Trimble GPS on the BlueBoat to send position to the autopilot as detailed in the FAQ. Once that is working, handling corrections is as simple as installing the appropriate BlueOS extension (called Ntrip), and configuring it to receive the corrections over the internet (cellular modem sourced, or how do you plan to provide internet access to the system?)

I’m not familiar witht he GPS_INJECT_TO parameter - maybe the Ntrip extension is using this, but I don’t think you’ll need to touch it directly (if it even exists on ArduRover firmware.)

The only potential stumbling point I can think of is if you’re using two receivers on the BlueBoat to get a GPS heading measurement, they need to be seperated by sufficient distance, and the locations of all the components should be captured in the relevant parameters. A recent default parameter update sets the INS and default GPS pos information - you’ll want to configure your additional GPS pos relative to the center of the vehicle ( a point at water level centered between hulls.)

Let us know if you get stuck! Quite a lot of users seems to be using various RTK GPS systems without issues, and we’re evaluating options to eventually offer a Blue Robotics (low cost) solution.