Enhancing filter robustness in cascaded GPS-INS integrations

Filter robustness is defined herein as the ability of the Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS-INS) Kalman filter to cope with adverse environments and input conditions, to successfully identify such conditions and to take evasive action. The formulation of two such techniques for a cascaded GPS-INS Kalman filter integration is discussed This is an integration in which the navigation solution from a GPS receiver is used as a measurement in the filter to estimate inertial errors and instrument biases. The first technique presented discusses the handling of GPS position biases. These are due to errors in the GPS satellite segment, and are known to be unobservable. They change levels when a satellite constellation change occurs, at which point they introduce undesirable filter response transients. A method of suppressing these transients is presented. The second technique presented deals with the proper identification of the filter measurement noise. Successful formulation of the noise statistics is a factor vital to the healthy estimation of the filter gains and operation. Furthermore, confidence in the formulation of these statistics can lead to the proper screening and rejection of bad data in the filter. A method of formulating the filter noise statistics dynamically based on inputs from the GPS and the INS is discussed     

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.     

Attitude determination with GPS: experimental results

An approach to global positioning system (GPS) attitude determination and the results of an experimental evaluation are presented. The most outstanding features of the method are the fundamental observable used for attitude calculation, the triple difference, and the introduction of a new parameter, the differential dilution of precision (DDOP), which relates the GPS satellite geometry to the GPS accuracy when measuring angular magnitudes. The experiment used two commercial off-the-shelf GPS C/A code receivers delivering integrated Doppler measurements. The algorithm is robust with respect to phase cycle slips and does not require solving the usual integer ambiguity of the measurements. The preliminary results show that absolute attitude determination requires a calibration of the baseline and that the relative attitude accuracy is on the order of 0.1° or 2 mrads for the case of a 2-m-long baseline     

Correlations between GPS and USNO Master Clock time

The U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock is used to steer the Global Positioning System (GPS) time. Time transfer data consisting of the difference between the Master Clock and GPS time has been acquired from all satellites in the GPS constellation covering a time period from 10 October 1995 to 12 December 1995. A Fourier analysis of the data shows a distinct peak in the Fourier spectrum corresponding to approximately a one day period. In order to determine this period more accurately, correlations are computed between successive days of the data, and an average of twenty five correlation functions shows that there exists a correlation equal to 0.52 at delay time 23 h 56 min, which corresponds to twice the average GPS satellite period. This correlation indicates that GPS time, as measured by the U.S. Naval Observatory, is periodic with respect to the Master Clock, with a period of 23 h and 56 min. An autocorrelation of a five day segment of data indicates that these correlations persist for four successive days     

多模GNSS IFCB产品特点分析及精密单点定位性能评估

随着多模全球卫星导航系统（GNSS）高精度应用需求的日益增长,频间钟偏差（IFCB）问题近年来得到广泛研究。基于2023年年积日（DOY）（130～136）澳大利亚地区18个多模实验跟踪网（MGEX）观测数据的无几何无电离层（GFIF）组合,分别估计了北斗卫星导航系统（BDS）、伽利略卫星导航系统（Galileo）和全球定位系统（GPS）卫星的 IFCB 产品。对比分析了BDS-2,BDS-3,Galileo和GPS卫星的IFCB的特点。评估了相位相关的IFCB（PIFCB）误差对GPS BLOCK IIF卫星超宽巷（EWL）未校准相位硬件延迟（UPD）和非组合（UC）三频精密单点定位（PPP）性能的影响。实验结果表明,PIFCB误差对Galileo卫星的影响最小,对GPS BLOCK IIF卫星的影响最大;对BDS-3卫星的影响低于BDS-2卫星;不同信号频率对IFCB产品的估计结果会产生一定的影响。实验结果进一步表明,IFCB产品可以显著提高GPS BLOCK IIF卫星EWL UPD的稳定性和UC三频PPP的定位性能。EWL UPD的平均标准差（STD）从0.064周减小到0.021周,提高了67.2%。UC三频PPP在东（E）、北（N）、天顶（U）三方向分别从4.63 cm,3.04 cm和8.76 cm减小到3.08 cm,2.00 cm和5.85 cm,平均定位精度分别提高了31.5%,34.2%和33.2%。收敛时间小于20 min的比例从66.3%提高到71.8%,提高了5.5%。平均收敛时间从21.13 min缩短到17.24 min,减少了18.4%。     

Instantaneous GPS attitude determination

A procedure for instantaneous GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) attitude determination, i.e., a solution for the GPS integrated carrier Doppler wavelength ambiguities using only measurements at a single epoch, is described. Most previous techniques to solve the phase ambiguity problem have required some form of time history processing relying on GPS satellite and/or user motion to provide enough geometry change to eliminate false solutions. The algorithm described assumes three noncollinear antennas and integrated carrier Doppler measurements from four or more satellites. Double-difference processing provides at least three independent observables for the two antenna separation vectors to compute the three attitude Euler angles     

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     

差分GPS的原理和实现方法

GPS卫星无线电导航系统预计在1995年投入正式运行。GPS信号中的P码仅供美军和特别用户使用,C/A码则向全世界民用开放。C/A码受选择可用性(SA)影响,导航静度下降到一个适当水平。为提高GPS定位精度,各国都争相研究差分GPS(DGPS)。本文从GPS误差入手,主要就DGPS原理和实现方法进行讨论。     

Receiver-channel based adaptive blind equalization approach for GPS dynamic multipath mitigation

Aiming at mitigating multipath effect in dynamic global positioning system (GPS) satellite navigation applications, an approach based on channel blind equalization and real-time recursive least square (RLS) algorithm is proposed, which is an application of the wireless communication channel equalization theory to GPS receiver tracking loops. The blind equalization mechanism builds upon the detection of the correlation distortion due to multipath channels; therefore an increase in the number of correlator channels is required compared with conventional GPS receivers. An adaptive estimator based on the real-time RLS algorithm is designed for dynamic estimation of multipath channel response. Then, the code and carrier phase receiver tracking errors are compensated by removing the estimated multipath components from the correlators’ outputs. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach, this technique is integrated into a GPS software receiver connected to a navigation satellite signal simulator, thus simulations under controlled dynamic multipath scenarios can be carried out. Simulation results show that in a dynamic and fairly severe multipath environment, the proposed approach achieves simultaneously instantaneous accurate multipath channel estimation and significant multipath tracking errors reduction in both code delay and carrier phase.     

面向导航增强的低轨卫星钟差确定及预报方法研究

低轨导航增强是未来导航发展的重要趋势,而高精度低轨卫星钟差是实现低轨导航增强的必要条件。基于Sentinel-6A卫星,对低轨卫星钟差特性进行了分析,给出了钟差确定方法及影响因素,介绍了顾及钟差特性的低轨卫星钟差预报方法。实验表明,低轨卫星钟差含有多个周期项,给低轨卫星建模和预报带来了困难。与使用运动学定轨模型相比,基于简化动力学的定轨模型可显著提升低轨卫星钟差精度;当基于运动学模型确定低轨卫星钟差时,相较于使用GPS单系统数据,多GNSS观测数据可提升低轨卫星钟差精度。研究表明,基于GPS和Galileo观测的Sentinel-6A卫星钟差精度相较于GPS单系统钟差精度改善了36%,同时,所使用的GNSS产品精度与低轨卫星钟差精度密切相关。利用顾及卫星钟差特性的低轨卫星钟差预报方法,当预报时长小于1 min,低轨卫星钟差预报精度（预报与解算值之差的RMSE）在0.1 ns之内,当预报时长小于5 min,预报精度在0.3 ns之内,随着预报时长的增长,预报精度显著下降。     

Characterization of NAVSTAR GPS and GLONASS on-board clocks

Investigation into navigation satellite on board clock frequency references and performance are reported. The focus is on the stability of the clocks aboard the NAVSTAR GPS (Global Positioning System) and GLONASS satellites as well as those used by their respective maser control stations and associated time scales. Allan-variance techniques have been applied to determine the long-term time-domain behavior of satellite clocks in an attempt to identify different regions of power spectral density. Coupled with analysis of relative-frequency drift over a period of many weeks, this behavior allows the type of satellite onboard standard to be tentatively identified. The known nature of the GPS clocks has shown that the different types of clocks aboard the satellites (crystal, rubidium, and cesium) are distinguishable given a sufficient sample time. The same approach has been applied to the GLONASS satellites, and a comparison of the results obtained from GPS has allowed conjecture on the type of clock used by the GLONASS satellites. It appears that GLONASS has used clocks of the quality of rubidium atomic oscillators since at least 1986, and that the quality and performance of onboard standards have increased steadily with time. Some current satellites perform well enough in terms of frequency drift, flicker FM noise floor, and long-term stability to compare favorably with the cesium beam standards carried on NAVSTAR GPS satellites launched in 1983-84     

Precise orbit determination for TH02-02 satellites based on BDS3 and GPS observations

The Tianhui-2 02 (TH02-02) satellite formation, as a supplement to the microwave mapping satellite system Tianhui-2 01 (TH02-01), is the first Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellite formation-flying system that supports the tracking of BeiDou global navigation Satellite system (BDS3) new B1C and B2a signals. Meanwhile, the twin TH02-02 satellites also support the tracking of Global Positioning System (GPS) L1&L2 and BDS B1I&B3I signals. As the spaceborne receiver employs two independent boards to track the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites, we design an orbit determination strategy by estimating independent receiver clock offsets epoch by epoch for each GNSS to realize the multi-GNSS data fusion from different boards. The performance of the spaceborne receiver is evaluated and the contribution of BDS3 to the kinematic and reduced-dynamic Precise Orbit Determination (POD) of TH02-02 satellites is investigated. The tracking data onboard shows that the average number of available BDS3 and GPS satellites are 8.7 and 9.1, respectively. The carrier-to-noise ratio and carrier phase noise of BDS3 B1C and B2a signals are comparable to those of GPS. However, strong azimuth-related systematic biases are recognized in the pseudorange multipath errors of B1C and B3I. The pseudorange noise of BDS3 signals is better than that of GPS after eliminating the multipath errors from specific signals. Taking the GPS-based reduced-dynamic orbit with single-receiver ambiguity fixing technique as a reference, the results of BDS3-only and BDS3 + GPS combined POD are assessed. The Root Mean Square (RMS) of orbit comparison of BDS3-based kinematic and reduced-dynamic POD with reference orbit are better than 7 cm and 3 cm in three-Dimensional direction (3D). The POD performance based on B1C&B2a data is comparable to that based on B1I&B3I. The precision of BDS3 + GPS combined kinematic orbit can reach up to 3 cm (3D RMS), which has a more than 25% improvement relative to the GPS-only solution. In addition, the consistency between the BDS3 + GPS combined reduced-dynamic orbit and the GPS-based ambiguity-fixed orbit is better than 1.5 cm (3D RMS).     

电离层对单频卫星导航系统伪距差分定位的影响

用计算机仿真方法 ,给出了单频卫星导航系统伪距差分后 ,定位误差受电离层影响的一些结果。伪距差分定位能够校正电离层时延误差 ,但校正精度随用户与基准站到同一颗卫星倾斜因子的不同而不同。为此 ,提出了一种改进的伪距差分方法。仿真结果表明 ,改进后有明显效果     

A novel approach for the SARSAT system

A novel method for determining the location of a 406-MHz emergency locator transmitter (ELT) for the search and rescue satellite aided tracking (SARSAT) system is proposed. The technique uses information from a geostationary satellite (Geosat) link, as well as the conventional polar orbiting satellite links. The method is based on solving a system of equations to determine the range from the ELT to the polar orbiting satellite (Polarsat) for each signal transmitted. Only two pulses need to be received from the ELT in order to obtain a location estimate. The main difference between the procedure outlined and the global positioning system (GPS) is that accurate time information is not available in the transmissions since aircraft and marine vessels seldom have accurate time standards onboard     

Adaptive SNR-based carrier phase multipath mitigation technique

An improved technique that mitigates specular multipath in Global Positioning System (GPS) differential carrier phase measurements is described. It adaptively estimates the spectral parameters (frequency, amplitude, phase offset) of multipath in the associated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and then constructs a profile of the multipath error in the carrier phase. A multipath correction is subsequently made by subtracting the profile from the actual phase measurement data. The technique is demonstrated on ground based experimental data, as well as flight data from the atmospheric research satellite CRISTA-SPAS. Ground experiments were conducted on static platforms in severe multipath environments. Multipath was deliberately introduced by either strategic placement of reflectors or electronic injection. This allowed for some control over the strength and frequency of the multipath. Averaging the results from 43 ground and 18 flight data sets, the differential carrier phase multipath was reduced by 47%. The complete results for both ground and flight tests are presented and are accompanied by discussions of individual cases     

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。     

INMARSAT integrity channels for global navigation satellite systems

The transmission of integrity information using a signal format compatible with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and relayed through a geostationary satellite repeater, which will be critical in achieving high integrity and availability of global navigation by satellite is discussed. The inclusion of navigation repeaters designed to fulfil this function, the next generation of INMARSAT spacecraft, INMARSAT-3 is examined. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) integrity channel (GIC) will employ pseudorandom codes in the same family as, but distinct from, the codes reserved by GPS. The data format of the basic integrity channel is designed to convey user range error information for 24 to 40 satellites. A closed-loop timing compensation technique will be used at the uplinking Earth station, to make the signal's clock and carrier Doppler variations identical to those that would result from an onboard signal source. Therefore, the INMARSAT-3 satellites will increase the number of useful navigation satellites available to any user, and can also function as sources of precise timing. There is also a possibility that wide area differential corrections can be carried on the same signal     

Impact of one satellite outage on ARAIM depleted constellation configurations

Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring(ARAIM) is a new technology that will provide worldwide coverage of vertical guidance in aviation navigation. The ARAIM performance and improvement under depleted constellations is a practical problem that needs to be faced and researched further. It is a shortcut that improves the availability in position domain whose key idea is to replace the conventional least squares process with a non-least-squares estimator to lower the integrity risk in exchange for a slight increase in nominal position error. The contributions given in this paper include two parts: First, the impacts of one satellite outage on different constellations are analyzed and compared. The conclusion is that GPS is more sensitive and vulnerable to one satellite outage. Second, a constellation weighted ARAIM(CW-ARAIM)position estimator is proposed. The position solution is replaced by a constellation weighted average solution to eliminate the constellation difference. The new solution will move close to the constellation solutions with respect to the accuracy requirement. The simulation results under baseline GPS and Galileo dual-constellation show that the one GPS satellite outage will knock the availability from 91% to only 50%. The performance remains stable with one Galileo satellite outage. With the assistance of the CW-ARAIM method, the availability can increase from 50% to more than80% under depleted GPS configurations. Even without any satellite outage, the proposed method can effectively improve the availability from 91.29% to 98.75%. The test results under optimistic constellations further verify that a balanced constellation is more important than more satellites on orbit and the superiority of CW-ARAIM method is still effective.     

Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) capability forsole-means GPS navigation in the oceanic phase of flight

Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM), a GPS integrity monitoring scheme that uses redundant ranging signals to detect a satellite malfunction that results in a large range error, involves two functions: detection of the presence of a malfunctioning satellite and identification of which satellite (or satellites) is malfunctioning. An analysis is presented of GPS RAIM capability for sole-means navigation in the oceanic phase of flight, where the position protection limit requirement for the integrity function is not as stringent as for nonprecision approaches, and yet both detection and identification function may be required if GPS is to be used as a sole-means system. For this purpose, a detection and identification algorithm is developed which takes advantage of the fact that for the oceanic phase of flight, a much larger position error is acceptable than for the nonprecision approach phase of flight. The performance of this algorithm and an algorithm proposed previously by others is estimated via simulation and compared. On the basis of the results, recommendations are made on how RAIM may be used if GPS is to be coupled with an inertial system to provide a sole-means capability in the oceanic phase of flight     

On-ground vehicle navigation using satellite navigation equipment

The problems are considered of a modelling research of navigation features and improvement of the navigating filters algorithms used in the navigating devices of ground mobile vehicles (MV). It is supposed that the methods and approaches known as real time kinematic (RTK) are incorporated in a basis of researched navigating devices and algorithms. Thus, the measurements from satellite navigating systems such as GLONASS/GPS, and also the measurements from other traditional measuring means (tactile sensors, steering wheel angle and/or inertial measuring instruments) are used in the navigating device of the MV. In the present report we solve the problems and describe the methods of a modeling research of the features of functional units algorithms of the MV navigating processor with account of a satellite navigation set integration with other measuring instruments. The improvement of these devices interaction is made by means of the computer complex "AutoMobil," allowing us to simulate the certain conditions of these navigating tools operation. The imitation computer complex "AutoMobil" for researches of the MV navigation is developed within the frameworks of a programming environment "Delphi-7".