Effects of ionospheric scintillation on differential demodulation of GPS data

Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers that must operate under fading propagation conditions can use differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) and reference bits to reliably demodulate GPS data. The demodulation performance of such receivers is analyzed for nonfading and Rayleigh fading channels. Theoretical results derived here are compared with measured error rates taken during scintillation testing of a prototype GPS/DPSK receiver.     

Next generation GPS-aided space navigation systems

The next generation of low cost Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers for space navigation and attitude determination are positioned to take full advantage of the improvements made in the commercial GPS receivers used for terrestrial applications. There have been recent improvements made to the GPS receivers that include the addition of extra GPS satellite channels that can be tracked simultaneously. The older style GPS receivers were only able to handle five channels at a time. In order for proper determination of three-dimensional position, a minimum of four channels was required and the fifth channel of the receiver was reserved to perform search functions for finding the next satellite. This included searching for satellites that could be used to replace exiting satellites moving out of the Field of View (FOV). The search function also enables the GPS receiver to search for the best constellation for maximum performance accuracy. The fifth roaming channel also provided a best next-satellite selection capability in case the field of view to one of the satellites was blocked or shaded.     

Attitude determination using dedicated and nondedicatedmultiantenna GPS sensors

We show that the use of nondedicated Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors to determine the attitude parameters of a vessel yields the same level of performance as the use of a dedicated multiantenna receiver, namely an agreement of the order of 0.1° (1σ). The test platform is a survey launch operating at cruising speeds of 10 to 15 kt. The dedicated multiantenna receiver is a four-antenna Ashtech 3DF unit, while the nondedicated sensor array consists of three NovAtel GPSCard^TM receivers. The approach used to resolve the relative carrier phase integer ambiguities between the antennas is discussed and the use of antenna baseline constraints is analyzed. A least-squares procedure which utilizes all the position information from the antennas for the estimation of the attitude parameters and their accuracy is presented. The attitude determination results from the two configurations tested are intercompared     

An evaluation of the radio frequency susceptibility of commercialGPS receivers

The radio frequency (RF) susceptibility characteristics of two commercial Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers were evaluated. A first-order analysis was performed to predict the receiver susceptibility thresholds based on the receiver sensitivity and processing gain. The receiver susceptibility thresholds in the post-acquisition mode were then measured for various interference signal frequencies and modulations. Both receivers exhibited very low susceptibility thresholds to in-band continuous wave (CW) signals. In addition, both receivers could be over-driven with an out-of-band signal. In this state the receivers indicated acceptable figures of merit despite loss of satellite signal lock     

北斗/GPS双频载波相位单点定位模型及精度分析

针对海洋工程实时米级绝对定位需求,利用双频伪距、载波相位观测量和同时估计接收机位置、接收机钟差和载波相位模糊度,构建了一种双频载波相位实时单点定位方法.亚太区域14个测站试验结果显示:北斗水平和高程定位RMS分别为1.33m和1.81m,GPS为0.60m和0.85m,北斗/GPS组合为0.56m和0.72m;船载动态试验结果显示:北斗水平和高程定位RMS分别为1.40m 和2.46m,GPS为0.69m 和0.90m,北斗/GPS组合为0.65m和0.83m.     

GPS/INS integration on the Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM)

The Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) is a worldwide, all-weather, precision-strike weapon system deployed from carrier-based aircraft. In the primary mode of operation, target location and other mission data are generated from intelligence sources available on the aircraft carrier and loaded into the missile prior to aircraft takeoff. After missile launch, the SLAM inertial navigation system (INS) guides the missile along the planned trajectory. Updating the missile INS from the Global Positioning System (GPS) during flight provides precise midcourse navigation and enhances target acquisition by accurate, on-target pointing of the SLAM Maverick seeker. The GPS/INS avionics and software integration used for SLAM are described in detail, along with some of the design tradeoffs that led to the approach. The avionics configuration integrates the Harpoon midcourse guidance unit, which includes a strapdown inertial sensor package and digital processor, with a Rockwell-Collins single-channel, sequential GPS receiver processor unit (RPU), a derivative of the GPS phase-III user equipment. In addition to the GPS receiver elements the RPU contains the navigation processor, which executes the SLAM navigation, Kalman filter algorithms, and other guidance algorithms including seeker pointing. Flight-test results of the SLAM GPS-aided INS are also included     

GPS code and carrier multipath mitigation using a multiantennasystem

Multipath is a major source of error in high precision Global Positioning System (GPS) static and kinematic differential positioning. Multipath accounts for most of the total error budget in carrier phase measurements in a spacecraft attitude determination system. It is a major concern in reference stations, such as in Local Area Augmentation Systems (LAAS), whereby corrections generated by a reference station, which are based on multipath corrupted measurements, can significantly influence the position accuracy of differential users. Code range, carrier phase, and signal-to-noise (SNR) measurements are all affected by multipath, and the effect is spatially correlated within a small area. In order to estimate and remove code and carrier phase multipath, a system comprising a cluster of five GPS receivers and antennas is used at a reference station location. The spatial correlation of the receiver data, and the known geometry among the antennas, are exploited to estimate multipath for each satellite in each antenna in the system. Generic receiver code and carrier tracking loop discriminator functions are analyzed, and relationships between receiver data, such as code range, carrier phase, and SNR measurements, are formulated and related to various multipath parameters. A Kalman filter is described which uses a combination of the available information from the antennas (receivers) in the multiantenna cluster to estimate various multipath parameters. From the multipath parameters, the code range and carrier phase multipath is estimated and compensated. The technique is first tested on simulated data in a controlled multipath environment. Results are then presented using field data and show a significant reduction in multipath error     

Potential interference sources to GPS and solutions appropriate forapplications to civil aviation

When the GPS (Global Positioning System) is subjected to interference, the system performance gradually deteriorates as the interfering levels increase. Two modes of interference are discussed in detail, namely, that from transmissions at frequencies close to the GPS frequencies and that from transmissions with a harmonic in the GPS band. It is argued that the former requires RF filtering in the receiver with a quality better than that generally specified. The latter cannot be dealt with in such a way. Measurements carried out on the harmonic levels transmitted by one UK TV transmitter and several hundred aircraft VHF transmitters are reported. The measurements show there is a measurable level of harmonics in the GPS band. The UK TV transmitter does not, however, represent a threat to aviation unless the aircraft is so close as to represent a physical danger. The probability that one aircraft's VHF transmitter will interfere with the GPS receiver on another aircraft is tolerably small, but there is a significant probability that a GPS receiver can suffer when there is a VHF transmission from the same aircraft. Several recommendations are made, including an international effort to ensure that spurious emissions are both quantified and kept at a level significantly lower than that achieved today     

I: PRECISE ORBIT DETERMINATION AND GRAVITY FIELD MODELLING: Strategies for Precise Orbit Determination of Low Earth Orbiters Using the GPS

Considerable experience accumulated during the past decade in strategies for processing GPS data from ground-based geodetic receivers. First experience on the use of GPS observations from spaceborne receivers for orbit determination of satellites on low altitude orbits was gained with the launch of TOPEX/POSEIDON ten years ago. The launch of the CHAMP satellite in July 2000 stimulated a number of activities worldwide on improving the strategies and algorithms for orbit determination for Low Earth Orbiters (LEOs) using the GPS. Similar strategies as for ground-based receivers are applied to data from spaceborne GPS receivers to determine high precision orbits. Zero- and double-differencing techniques are applied to obtain kinematic and/or reduced-dynamic orbits with an accuracy which is today at the decimeter level. Further developments in modeling and processing strategies will continuously improve the quality of GPS-derived LEO orbits in the near future. A significant improvement can be expected from fixing double-difference phase ambiguities to integer numbers. Particular studies focus on the impact of a combined processing of LEO and GPS orbits on the quality of orbits and the reference frame realization. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

民用飞机定水平设施研究综述

中国民航适航规章第25部第871条款要求必须有确定飞机在地面处于水平位置的设施,以方便实现飞机姿态的调平。针对民用航空主流机型的定水平设施进行了归纳和分类,并逐类进行了分析研究,为国产民用飞机定水平设施的设计提供了重要参考。     

Preoperational testing of data link-based air traffic managementsystems in Magadan, far East Russia

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has been used in many ways which were unimagined by its original planners and implementers. This paper discusses one such application; the surveillance of commercial aircraft in a developing airspace environment. GPS provides system users with the ability to determine their own position with an accuracy, reliability and cost that is unprecedented. Voice procedures augmented by radar have been the primary tools for air traffic surveillance since the end of World War II. But for some countries the equipage of aircraft with GPS and a data link capable of carrying position reports to the ATC authorities is providing a viable alternative to long-range secondary radar systems. In the summer and fail of 1995, ARINC installed and demonstrated equipment in Magadan, Russia which permits air traffic controllers of MagadanAeroControl to monitor GPS position reports generated by aircraft as far away as Canada and the South Pacific. The position reports were displayed against maps and flight tracks. This equipment has clearly demonstrated an alternative technology for the upgrading of the ATC system in Siberia and other remote areas     

Navigation system of pilotless aircraft via GPS

The pilotless aircraft has wide applications in measuring earth, surveying mineral sources, fireproofing in the forest, observing floods and so on. In this paper, after briefly introducing positioning and navigation technologies for pilotless aircraft-a new kind of navigation system for pilotless aircraft using GPS (Global Positioning System) is presented. An overall plan of the navigation system is discussed, and its technology cruxes are analysed. Its hardware and software are designed and implemented, and experimental results are given. The navigation system not only has autonomous navigation capability, but can also achieve navigation aided by telecontrol system. It can supervise flying by telemetering system and displaying predetermined air line and flight path maps on the computer monitor. It can run in simple GPS receiver mode or in the differential GPS mode by means of available telecontrol channel. These are, no doubt, of great value for the navigation of pilotless aircraft     

GPS Aided Inertial Navigation

The Global Positioning System is an extremely accurate satellite-based navigation system which, after its completion in 1989, will provide users worldwide, 24 hour. all weather coverage. A joint research project among Boeing, Rockwell-Collins, and Northrop has been completed in which a GPS receiver was integrated with a low-cost strap-down inertial navigation system and a flight computer. A Kalman filter in the latter allows in-fight alignment and calibration of the INS. In addition, feedback from the INS to the GPS receiver improves the system's ability to reacquire satellite signals after outages. The resulting system combines the accuracy of GPS with the jamming immunity and autonomy of inertial navigation. System tests were conducted in which a Boeing owned T-33 jet aircraft was flown through known test pattern to align and calibrate the INS. Earlier tests, including tests against an airborne jammer, were conducted in a modified passenger bus.     

GPS/惯性组合方式讨论与导航精度分析

 本文讨论GPS/惯性组合两种方式的优缺点。并以GPS伪距和伪距率与惯导组合为例,按GPS测量误差的不同,以及使用差分机等情况,仿真计算了机载使用的组合导航性能,进行了详细的精度分析。结果表明,这种组合的导航精度比GPS和惯导各自的导航精度高。在采用差分GPS机与惯导组合后,位置误差将进一步减少,使组合导航具有开辟例如飞机进场着陆等新的使用领域的可能性。     

GPS autoland considerations

It is pointed out that fully automatic hands-off landing (autoland) capability for commercial aircraft, using the Global Positioning System (GPS), has not been demonstrated, and that ground multipath errors limit vertical positioning accuracy. An evolving integrated-sensor-based architecture for approach and landing, called the tunnel concept, is examined. The precise velocity information available could substantially reduce the vertical accuracy requirement for autoland     

Sigma inflation for the local area augmentation of GPS

The Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) is the differential satellite navigation architectural standard for civil aircraft precision approach and landing. While the system promises great practical benefit, a number of key technical challenges have been encountered in the definition of the architecture. Perhaps chief among these has been the need to ensure compliance with stringent requirements for navigation Integrity. In this context, this research investigates the sensitivity of integrity risk to statistical uncertainties in the knowledge of reference receiver error standard deviation (σ_{pr_gnd} ) and error correlation across the multiple reference receivers to be used in the LAAS ground segment. A new, detailed approach toward mitigating the integrity risk due to parameter statistical uncertainty is presented     

大型运输机地面涡流场数值模拟

针对地面涡现象,建立了大型运输机装配涡扇发动机的三维模型,采用数值仿真方法模拟计算不同风速、风向、滑行速度条件下的地面涡流场。根据计算结果分析得到了地面涡流场分布特征及变化规律,提出了该型机运营过程中的注意事项。结果表明：针对该型机,地面涡进气主要造成进气旋流畸变,进气总压畸变水平较低,畸变指数保持在1.1%～1.7%之间。逆风风速大于5 m/s时地面涡消失,其强度随风速增加先增后减;随着风向变化,地面涡流场的涡系结构不断变化,处于下风侧的短舱更容易产生地面涡;滑行条件下地面涡强度变化较小,滑行速度达到3 m/s时已无涡吸入。实际使用中,地面静止开车时应着重观察旋流畸变较大的1号、4号发动机的工作状态;滑行时应着重观察地面涡吸入能力较强的2号、3号发动机的外物吸入情况。     

Subspace array processing for the suppression of FM jamming in GPS receivers

The mitigation of FM interference in GPS receivers is considered. In difference to commonly assumed wideband and narrowband interferers, the FM interferers are wideband, but instantaneously narrowband, and as such, have clear time-frequency (TF) signatures that are distinct from the GPS coarse acquisition (C/A) spread spectrum code. In the proposed technique, the estimate of the FM interference instantaneous frequency (IF) and the interference spatial signature are used to construct the spatiotemporal interference subspace. The IF estimates can be provided using existing effective linear or bilinear TF methods. The undesired signal arrival is suppressed by projecting the input data on the interference orthogonal subspace. With a multisensor receiver, the distinctions in both the spatial and TF signatures of signal arrivals allow effective interference suppressions. The deterministic nature of the signal model is considered and the known underlying structure of the GPS C/A code is utilized. We derive the receiver signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) under exact and perturbed IF values. The effect of IF estimation errors on both pseudorange measurements and navigation data recovery is analyzed. Simulation results comparing the receiver performances under IF errors in single and multiantenna GPS receivers are provided.     

Field test results prove GPS performance and utility

Statistical and operational results of extensive government field-testing of the Rockwell-Collins Global Positioning System (GPS) units are summarized. The equipment has exhibited better than 16-m spherical-error probable-position accuracy in over 6300 hours of testing conducted during the past two years. One-channel, two-channel, and five-channel receivers were subjected to thorough evaluation. Their respective signal-processing and data-processing architectures are described. Data highlighting dynamic position accuracy, static position accuracy, acquisition times, and field reliability are presented. GPS equipment integration and operation with nine different host vehicles is described. The results of mission scenarios, such as area navigation, rendezvous, and weapon delivery, are presented     

Relative navigation for multi-spacecraft system with GPS

A type of multi-spacecraft system with kinematical restraint but no structural restraint and force action is considered. Both the absolute and relative navigation information is required for this multi-spacecraft system, but the relative information is more critical and the accuracy requirements for relative information will be much higher than those for the absolute information. In this paper, the Global Positioning System (GPS)/Differential GPS (DGPS) are introduced and used for relative navigation. Relative motion of space vehicles is modeled. Relative position, relative velocity and relative attitude are represented and solved by GPS/DGPS measurements. Using a type of commercial GPS receiver onboard spacecraft and relative differential GPS technique, the relative navigation of space vehicles can be implemented in real-time