Quest Journals Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering Research Volume 8 ~ Issue 5 (2022) pp: 72-78 ISSN(Online) : 2321-5941 www.questjournals.org *Corresponding Author: EZE PROMISE I 72 | Page Research Paper Assessment of Relative Accuracy of Selected Total Station Instruments for a Closed Traverse Survey EZE PROMISE I, AND LAWRENCE HART Department of Surveying and Geomatics, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Abstract In recent time, numerous Surveying instruments and equipment has evolved due to technological development which has impacted in some techniques of field data acquisition in Surveying and Geomatics, one of these instruments is the Total Station (TS) Instrument. This instrument measures the distances and directions between two points and automatically stores the data for retrieval and further processing. The accuracies and reliability of the (TS) instrument is of utmost important to the Surveyor and Civil Engineers during field data acquisition, hence the need of this study to assess the Relative accuracy of selected (TS) instruments in a closed traverse survey with the objective of carrying out a close traverse survey, analyze the relative angular and linear misclosures and compute the area of the land parcel surveyed. Three (TS) instruments under study includes LEICA TS02-plus, MATO MTS 802R and KOLIDA KTS-442L, The study adopted the classical method of traversing where horizontal distances and directions between series of connected lines are determined; the transit method of traverse adjustment was used to adjust the error in the traverse stations, angular and linear accuracies were computed and the size (area) of the land parcel surveyed were determined. From the results obtained, An angular accuracies of 0 0 0’ 9”, 0 0 0’ 14” and 0 0 0’ 12”, a linear accuracy of 1:10,344, 1:7,595 and 1: 9,000 were computed for traverse with LEICA TS02-plus, MATO MTS 802R and KOLIDA KTS-442L (TS) instruments respectively. The findings also reveal that an area of 5,268.790 sq.mtrs, 5,268.551sq.mtrs and 5268.352sq.mtrs were computed for traverse carried out with LEICA TS02-plus, MATO MTS 802R and KOLIDA KTS-442L (TS) respectively. The results indicate that all the (TS) instruments under study were very good for spatial data acquisition as it obtained the maximum angular and minimum linear accuracies for a third order control survey which is 30” and 1:5000. However, LEICA TS02-plus has the highest accuracy followed by, KOLIDA KTS-442L and MATO MTS 802R respectively. Key words: Total Station, Misclosure, Geomatics, Traversing. Received 15 May, 2022; Revised 28 May, 2022; Accepted 30 May, 2022 © The author(s) 2022. Published with open access at www.questjournals.org I. Background of Study Surveying as a Measurement required minimum accuracy and precision in all measurements taking to determine positions of objects on the earth surface. Accuracy in surveying is the degree of closeness between the measured value and predicted value of a quantity whereas precision is the degree of consistency in a series of observation, but we have no true value in scientific observation but most probable value which is known as the mean value of repeated observations or measurements for a quantity. In recent time, numerous surveying instrument use in spatial data acquisition has emerge as a result of technological development in surveying instrument and equipment, one of this surveying instrument is the Total Station(TS) instruments which consists of three major components such as Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM) Theodolite and Micro-Processor (Charles and Paul, 2008), and has an angular accuracy varies from 1” to 20” and the distance accuracy depends up on two factors which are: Instrumental error which ranges from _+10mm to_ +2mm. Error due to the length of measurement can be from_+100mm to_+2mm per kilometer. Prior to the development and production of the TS instrument, Geospatial Scientist (Surveyors) have rely on the theodolite instrument which only measures direction while horizontal and vertical measurements are carried out with a tape or chain which is quite a herculean task. Some of the techniques and principles of field data acquisition used by Surveyors includes; chain surveying, compass traversing, triangulation, trilateration, intersection, and plane tabling (Basak, 2014).