Can a series of resections replace conventional traversing

This paper reports on the use of the resection function on total stations, one after another in a series, to replace conventional traversing on surveys. The accuracy and precision of this process was tested in both an open and closed traverse of 730 metres. It was found that the misclose on the open traverse was 66mm in horizontal and 30mm in vertical. The closed traverse was, of course, better, but even this process was unstable where abrupt changes of direction were involved. These results indicate that the use of serial resections as a method of traversing should be discouraged for any work with more than a moderate accuracy requirement, and certainly should never be used on cadastral surveys.