Multi-sensor optimal data fusion for INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation system

INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation system represents the trend of next generation navigation systems with the high performance of independence, high precision and reliability. This paper presents a new multi-sensor data fusion methodology for INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation systems. This methodology combines local decentralized fusion with global optimal fusion to enhance the accuracy and reliability of integrated navigation systems. A decentralized estimation fusion method is established for individual integrations of GPS and SAR into INS to obtain the local optimal state estimations in a parallel manner. A global optimal estimation fusion theory is studied to fuse the local optimal estimations for generating the global optimal state estimation of INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation systems. The global data fusion features a method of variance upper finiteness and a method of variance upper bound to ensure that the global optimal state estimation can be achieved under a general condition. Experimental results demonstrate that INS/GPS/SAR integrated navigation systems achieved by using the proposed methodology have a better performance than INS/GPS integrated systems.     

Analysis of GPS and Loran-C performance for land vehicle navigationin the Canadian Rockies

Loran-C and GPS were assessed for vehicular navigation along selected roads of British Columbia during the winter of 1991. The general topography of this mountainous area is described, together with the specific topographic features and tree coverage characteristics of the 2000 km of roads tested on the mainland and on Vancouver Island. The configuration and characteristics of the Loran C Canadian West Coast chain along the roads used are described. The portable vehicle-mounted system used to collect and analyze the Loran-C and GPS signals along road profiles is described. The performance of Loran-C is analyzed in terms of signal to noise ratios (SNR), field strength, and time-difference distortions, as measured by differential GPS. These distortions, which can reach several hundred meters over distances of less than 20 km, are analyzed in terms of topographic features. The possibility of using these time-independent distortions to calibrate Loran-C for use along the above roads is discussed. Masking of GPS signals due to topographic features and tree coverage along the roads is analyzed. A comparative analysis of both Loran-C and GPS is presented in terms of signal availability and accuracy     

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.     

Prototype personal navigation system

Honeywell Laboratories recently funded the development of a prototype personal navigation system based on MEMS technologies. The system components include a MEMS inertial measurement unit, a three-axis magnetometer, a barometric pressure sensor, and a SAASM GPS receiver. The system also uses Honeywell's human motion-based pedometry algorithm. The navigation process is based on a strap-down inertial navigator aided by feedback from a Kalman filter using typical measurements from the GPS, magnetometer and barometer when available. A key innovation is the addition of an independent measurement of distance traveled based on the use of a human motion algorithm. The navigation system combines the best features of dead reckoning and inertial navigation, resulting in positioning performance exceeding that achieved with either method alone. Subsequent to the Honeywell effort, DARPA funded an individual Personal Inertial Navigation System (iPINS) seedling program. Honeywell worked to improve the baseline personal navigation system with the objective of demonstrating the feasibility of reliably achieving navigation accuracy < 1 % of distance traveled in GPS-denied scenarios. In addition, an analysis was conducted to determine the benefit of incorporating terrain correlation into the personal navigation system. The results of this analysis indicate that overall navigation accuracy can be significantly improved through the application of terrain correlation. This presents an are presented. In addition, conclusions from the terrain correlation analysis conducted under the iPINS seedling program are included.     

Mars navigation system utilizes GPS

Tasks envisioned for future generation Mars rovers - sample collection, area survey, resource mining, habitat construction, etc. - will require greatly enhanced navigational capabilities over those possessed by the Mars Sojourner rover. Many of these tasks will involve cooperative efforts by multiple rovers and other agents, adding further requirements both for accuracy and commonality between users. This paper presents a new navigation system a "Self-Calibrating Pseudolite Array" (SCPA) that can provide centimeter-level, drift-free localization to multiple rovers within a local area by utilizing GPS-based transceivers deployed in a ground-based array. Such a system of localized beacons can replace or augment a system based on orbiting satellite transmitters, and is capable of fully autonomous operations and calibration. This paper describes the prototype SCPA developed at Stanford to demonstrate these capabilities and then presents results from a set of field trials performed at NASA Ames Research Center. These experiments, which utilize the K9 Mars rover research platform, validate both the navigation and self-calibration capabilities of the system. By carrying an on-board GPS transceiver, K9 was successfully able to calibrate the system using no a priori position information and localized the pseudolite beacons to under 5 cm RMS.     

Performance evaluation of GPS augmentation using Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

The current global positioning system (GPS) provides limited availability and capability for a country like Japan where mountainous terrain and urban canyons do not allow a clear skyline to the horizon. At present, the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is under investigation through a cooperative effort between the government and the private sector. QZSS is considered a multi-function satellite system, as it is able to provide communication, broadcasting, and positioning services for mobile users in a specified region with a high elevation angle. The additional GPS compatible signals from QZSS can remarkably improve the availability, accuracy, and capability of GPS positioning. This work focuses on the performance of GPS augmentation using the proposed QZSS. The QZSS satellite constellation and signal structure are briefly reviewed. Positioning with pseudo-range and carrier phase are discussed. The performance of GPS augmentation using QZSS in the Asian-Pacific and Australian area is studied using software simulations. The results are presented using the number of visible satellites as a measure of availability, GDOP as a measure of accuracy, and ambiguity success rate as a measure of capability of carrier-phase-based positioning with spatial and temporal variations. The results show that the QZSS will improve not only the availability and accuracy of GPS positioning, but will also enhance the capability of the GPS carrier-phase-based positioning in Japan and neighboring regions.     

MIMS/GPS组合导航系统设计与实验

 GPS 接收机与微型惯性传感器组成的低成本、轻小型组合导航系统可以弥补各自的不足, 防止导航定位误差随时间积累, 并且提高了系统的抗干扰能力。采用状态和偏差去耦估计方法, 在开环卡尔曼滤波器结构的基础上, 引入了偏差反馈补偿; 并利用双GPS 接收机测量方位角解决了组合系统的初始方位对准问题。车载实验表明, 样机的定位精度和GPS 相当, 并具有较好的重复性。尤其是当GPS 短时间失锁时, 系统仍能保持较高的定位精度, 从而增强了系统的可靠性。     

Next generation digital GPS receiver

The architecture and technology features of the next-generation (NGR) digital GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver manufactured by Collin are described. The project's objective was to develop an advanced GPS receiver chipset with high antijam capabilities. The program, initiated in 1985, has provided the technology for miniature receiver products for both unmanned and manned vehicle applications. A two-channel version of the receiver is in full-scale development for tactical missile applications. A five-channel version is being tested and evaluated as a drop-in replacement for RCVR-3A, the US Department of Defense standard high dynamic receiver. The NGR design started with the digital signal processing architecture developed for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) hand-held GPS receiver. Enhancements were made to improve the antijam and signal acquisition performance. Producible, qualifiable and cost-effective silicon monolithic microwave integrated circuits and semicustom digital technologies were used to develop the core GPS chipset. A system design approach was established to permit reuse of mature and validated GPS software     

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。     

An integrated GPS/MEMS-IMU navigation system for an autonomous helicopter

During the last years, there is an increasing demand for cheap and easy to operate platforms for surveillance and reconnaissance purposes. Therefore, the development of micro aerial vehicles is receiving an increasing attention. However, VTOL-MAVs often show an inherent instability that makes at least an automatic stabilization necessary, because otherwise the operator would not be able to keep these vehicles airborne. This requires the availability of navigation information, especially the vehicle's attitude has to be known.This paper addresses the development of an integrated navigation system based on MEMS inertial sensors and GPS for a VTOL-MAV. Special attention is paid to the handling of GPS outages. While usually periods without GPS aiding can be bridged using the unaided strapdown solution, the poor quality of the MEMS inertial sensors prohibits this approach here. Therefore, during GPS outages the accelerometer data is interpreted as approximate measurements of the local gravity vector. Additionally, the usage of a magnetometer providing measurements of the Earth's magnetic field is motivated and discussed. Finally, flight test results illustrate the performance of the resulting system, proving that the achieved attitude accuracy is sufficient for the automatic control of the MAV. This holds in situations with permanent GPS loss and dynamic maneuvering, too.     

Preliminary Evaluation of GPS Performance for Low-Cost General Aviation

Preliminary results of a simulation effort to evaluate the requirements and feasibility of the global positioning system (GPS) as a civil air navigation system are presented. Evaluation is made of GPS requirements, from operational considerations, such as application to nonprecision approaches. The conceptual low-cost GPS receiver simulated here does not correct for the ionospheric or trophospheric delay, is sequential in nature, tracks only four satellites, and is not mechanized to make independent range rate measurements based on the Doppler shift of the GPS carrier frequency. The proposed GPS system has significantly different performance characteristics from the presently used VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) solidus distance-measuring equipment (DME) system. The GPS is a low signal level system and many have a relatively slow data rate due to the low-cost sequential receiver design. The results indicate that although the conceptual low-cost GPS receiver/ navigator is potentially more accurate than a VOR, the accuracy may degrade during aircraft turns and satellite shielding periods.     

基于极限学习机的黑障区智能导航算法

在黑障区飞行阶段中,惯性导航系统会因缺少辅助导航系统而持续累积误差,导致飞行器导航系统可靠性下降。针对这一问题,提出了一种新的基于极限学习机的黑障区智能导航算法,通过极限学习机(ELM)对GPS正常工作的导航信息进行学习。在黑障区,利用学习得到的模型对惯性导航系统进行误差补偿,较好地修正了当GPS失锁时惯性导航系统的误差,避免了因误差累积而导致的导航信息发散。仿真结果表明,该算法能够保证在GPS失锁的黑障区中导航系统输出的信息有较好的可靠性和精度,能够为接下来的姿态调整和着陆准备提供良好的基础。     

地磁辅助的无缝INS/GPS组合导航研究

INS/GPS组合导航已经成为当前无人机导航系统的主要实现形式,由于GPS信号容易受到干扰,在恶劣的电磁环境下信号易丢失,从而导致GPS卫星信号失锁而无法使用。地磁导航作为一种无源导航方法,其难以受到外界干扰且具有较强的自主性,从而为克服GPS在干扰情况下无法对INS误差实现持续无缝修正的不足提供了很好的途径。针对INS/GPS组合导航中GPS卫星信号失锁的情况,设计提出了使用地磁匹配导航进行辅助实现无人机无缝导航的实现方案,设计了基于地磁特征的地磁匹配算法和地磁匹配辅助的INS/GPS组合无缝自主导航算法,并通过仿真验证了采用地磁匹配辅助导航方法,可以在GPS无效的情况下,实现对INS导航误差的持续无缝修正,从而提高导航系统性能。     

基于神经网络的航天器GPS/INS组合定姿系统

基于GPS和惯性技术的组合导航系统是近年来导航系统的研究热点和主要发展方向.目前基于卡尔曼滤波方法的算法在稳定性、计算量、算法鲁棒性以及系统可观测性等方面仍然存在问题.基于神经网络技术研究了一种新的GPS/INS组合定姿自适应卡尔曼滤波方法,理论分析表明,该方法不但对姿态信息具有较好的估计性能,而且对系统模型的精确性、噪声特性具备良好的鲁棒性.最后,利用模拟数据对所研究算法进行了分析计算,与传统的卡尔曼滤波方法进行了比较、分析,结果表明所设计组合算法在精度、稳定性以及鲁棒性等方面较传统卡尔曼方法具有良好的特性.     

Urban area performance of GPS receiver with simultrac capability

The theory of operation, practical applications, and technical performance of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver designed for urban area use are presented. The receiver tracks as many as eight satellites, or all visible satellites, and uses the signals of the four best satellites to ascertain its location. If visibility of one satellite is blocked, one of the additional satellites can be used to provide continuous navigation. Component-level system design choices are shown to support superior automotive vehicle location performance, including optimum mobile communication with satellites and ground-based relays     

GPS navigation requirements for future mobile ground-based missilesystems

To meet future system requirements, it is envisioned that it will be necessary to incorporate GPS receivers on the launchers and into the missiles. The size, weight, power, performance, number of channels, and cost of these GPS receivers are critical. Capabilities that future GPS receivers will need to meet envisioned US Army missile system requirements are outlined     

基于联邦滤波的容错组合导航系统仿真分析

设计INS／GPS组合导航系统时,考虑到观测量GPS位置和速度是正相关的,可通过降低单个滤波器的维度形成两个局部滤波器,主滤波器融合局部滤波器的状态估计,得到整个组合导航系统的误差状态估计值。同时,根据各局部滤波器的故障情况选择输出,仅利用未失效系统的局部滤波器得到可靠的最优误差状态估计值,使得容错性能大大提高。结果表明,由于采用了并行运算,增加了系统的余度,有效提高了导航系统的精度和可靠性,有较好的容错性和环境适应性,具有较高的应用价值。     

Evaluation of Geometric Performance of Global Positioning System

The global positioning system (GPS) is a satellite-based radio navigation system to provide extremely accurate three-dimensional position fixes and system time to users anywhere on the Earth at any time regardless of weather conditions. The most significant performance parameter of the GPS is the degree of navigation accuracy which is strongly coupled to the choice of orbit configuration. The 3 X 8 orbit configuration has been considered as an operational GPS which consists of 24 satellites deployed in circular 63° inclined, subsynchronous 12-h orbits. In this paper, the geometric performance of several orbit configuration, including a 3 X 8 orbit configuration, is analyzed numerically by altering orbit period and elevation mask, respectively. It will be shown that 1) there are a few orbit configurations which are comparable to or better than the baseline 3 X 8 orbit configuration, and 2) for higher elevation mask, the geometric performance can be improved effectively by increasing orbit period to some extent.     

多模GNSS PPP时间传递性能比对分析

精密单点定位(PPP)时间传递技术是国际时间比对的重要手段之一,为协调世界时的计算做出巨大贡献。为探究多系统融合PPP时间频率传递性能,选取3个国际授时实验室的测站数据组成2条链路,采用8种实验模式对比分析单系统、双系统、三系统和四系统PPP时间频率传递性能。实验结果表明：各多系统组合较单GPS系统在可见星数上均有较大提升,且极大改善了钟差精度因子,增加了时间比对结果的稳健性和可靠性。在时间传递稳定性方面：对于453.4 km的PTBB-BRUX链路,较单GPS系统,双系统中GPS/BDS组合提升效果最优,提升率约为10.39%,三系统中GPS/GLONASS/BDS组合提升率最优,约为11.86%,四系统组合提升率为11.98%,可从0.046 7 ns提升至0.041 1 ns;对于8 031.8 km的PTBB-NIST链路,GPS/BDS组合提升率约为4.89%,GPS/GLONASS/BDS组合提升率约为5.49%,四系统组合提升率为5.79%,可从0.114 0 ns提升至0.107 4 ns。在频率传递稳定度方面：在前10 000 s内双系统组合平均提升17.6%,三系统...