Comprehensive outage compensation of real-time orbit and clock corrections with broadcast ephemeris for ambiguity-fixed precise point positioning

The main challenge in real-time precise point positioning (PPP) is that the data outages or large time lags in receiving precise orbit and clock corrections greatly degrade the continuity and real-time performance of PPP positioning. To solve this problem, instead of directly predicting orbit and clock corrections in previous researches, this paper presents an alternative approach of generating combined corrections including orbit error, satellite clock and receiver-related error with broadcast ephemeris. Using ambiguities and satellite fractional-cycle biases (FCBs) of previous epoch and the short-term predicted tropospheric delay through linear extrapolation model (LEM), combined corrections at current epoch are retrieved and weighted with multiple reference stations, and further broadcast to user for continuous enhanced positioning during outages of orbit and clock corrections. To validate the proposed method, two reference station network with different inter-station distance from National Geodetic Survey (NGS) network are used for experiments with six different time lags (i.e., 5 s, 10 s, 15 s, 30 s, 45 s and 60 s), and one set of data collected by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is also used. The performance of LEM is investigated, and the troposphere prediction accuracy of low elevation (e.g., 10–20degrees) satellites has been improved by 44.1% to 79.0%. The average accuracy of combined corrections before and after LEM is used is improved by 12.5% to 77.3%. Without LEM, an accuracy of 2–3 cm can be maintained only in case of small time lags, while the accuracies with LEM are all better than 2 cm in case of different time lags. The performance of simulated kinematic PPP at user end is assessed in terms of positioning accuracy and epoch fix rate. In case of different time lags, after LEM is used, the average accuracy in horizontal direction is better than 3 cm, and the accuracy in up direction is better than 5 cm. At the same time, the epoch fix rate has also increased to varying degrees. The results of the UAV data show that in real kinematic environment, the proposed method can still maintain a positioning accuracy of several centimeters in case of 20 s time lag.     

Near real-time PPP-based monitoring of the ionosphere using dual-frequency GPS/BDS/Galileo data

Ionosphere delay is very important to GNSS observations, since it is one of the main error sources which have to be mitigated even eliminated in order to determine reliable and precise positions. The ionosphere is a dispersive medium to radio signal, so the value of the group delay or phase advance of GNSS radio signal depends on the signal frequency. Ground-based GNSS stations have been used for ionosphere monitoring and modeling for a long time. In this paper we will introduce a novel approach suitable for single-receiver operation based on the precise point positioning (PPP) technique. One of the main characteristic is that only carrier-phase observations are used to avoid particular effects of pseudorange observations. The technique consists of introducing ionosphere ambiguity parameters obtained from PPP filter into the geometry-free combination of observations to estimate ionospheric delays. Observational data from stations that are capable of tracking the GPS/BDS/GALILEO from the International GNSS Service (IGS) Multi-GNSS Experiments (MGEX) network are processed. For the purpose of performance validation, ionospheric delays series derived from the novel approach are compared with the global ionospheric map (GIM) from Ionospheric Associate Analysis Centers (IAACs). The results are encouraging and offer potential solutions to the near real-time ionosphere monitoring.     

GNSS global real-time augmentation positioning: Real-time precise satellite clock estimation,prototype system construction and performance analysis

Lots of ambiguities in un-differenced (UD) model lead to lower calculation efficiency, which isn’t appropriate for the high-frequency real-time GNSS clock estimation, like 1 Hz. Mixed differenced model fusing UD pseudo-range and epoch-differenced (ED) phase observations has been introduced into real-time clock estimation. In this contribution, we extend the mixed differenced model for realizing multi-GNSS real-time clock high-frequency updating and a rigorous comparison and analysis on same conditions are performed to achieve the best real-time clock estimation performance taking the efficiency, accuracy, consistency and reliability into consideration. Based on the multi-GNSS real-time data streams provided by multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) and Wuhan University, GPS + BeiDou + Galileo global real-time augmentation positioning prototype system is designed and constructed, including real-time precise orbit determination, real-time precise clock estimation, real-time Precise Point Positioning (RT-PPP) and real-time Standard Point Positioning (RT-SPP). The statistical analysis of the 6 h-predicted real-time orbits shows that the root mean square (RMS) in radial direction is about 1–5 cm for GPS, Beidou MEO and Galileo satellites and about 10 cm for Beidou GEO and IGSO satellites. Using the mixed differenced estimation model, the prototype system can realize high-efficient real-time satellite absolute clock estimation with no constant clock-bias and can be used for high-frequency augmentation message updating (such as 1 Hz). The real-time augmentation message signal-in-space ranging error (SISRE), a comprehensive accuracy of orbit and clock and effecting the users’ actual positioning performance, is introduced to evaluate and analyze the performance of GPS + BeiDou + Galileo global real-time augmentation positioning system. The statistical analysis of real-time augmentation message SISRE is about 4–7 cm for GPS, whlile 10 cm for Beidou IGSO/MEO, Galileo and about 30 cm for BeiDou GEO satellites. The real-time positioning results prove that the GPS + BeiDou + Galileo RT-PPP comparing to GPS-only can effectively accelerate convergence time by about 60%, improve the positioning accuracy by about 30% and obtain averaged RMS 4 cm in horizontal and 6 cm in vertical; additionally RT-SPP accuracy in the prototype system can realize positioning accuracy with about averaged RMS 1 m in horizontal and 1.5–2 m in vertical, which are improved by 60% and 70% to SPP based on broadcast ephemeris, respectively.     

抗差自适应分步滤波算法在PPP/INS组合导航中的应用

针对常规抗差自适应滤波算法在PPP/INS组合导航应用中存在难以准确识别和分离观测粗差及运动异常对定位结果影响的问题，基于分类因子自适应滤波原理,提出了一种抗差自适应分步滤波算法。该算法首先执行第一步滤波,对状态模型异常信息进行隔离，仅对观测粗差进行诊断和抗差处理；然后在第一步滤波的基础上，执行第二步滤波，对状态模型异常进行诊断和自适应处理。算法分析表明，抗差自适应分步滤波算法可以准确地识别和分离观测粗差和运动异常扰动。实验结果表明，抗差自适应分步滤波算法能够进一步增强滤波算法抵抗观测粗差和运动异常扰动对滤波结果的影响，提高PPP/INS组合导航系统定位结果的稳定性和可靠性。     

C8051F023在自动售货机网络管理系统中的应用

介绍自动售货机网络管理系统的整体构成和工作原理,分析C8051F023与接口模块设计相关的一些功能,讨论接口模块中与C8051F023有关的设计要点,得出了基于C8051F023设计的接口模块结构紧凑、性能优越且实用性强的结论。     

Rethinking public–private space travel

On May 24, 2012 SpaceX's Dragon capsule was launched and in doing so became the first commercially built vehicle to berth with and carry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). It successfully completed its mission and returned to the Pacific Ocean on May 31, 2012.¹ The docking of Dragon represented a historic moment where a commercial enterprise managed to achieve that which had previously only been accomplished by governments. “In the history of spaceflight – only four entities have launched a space capsule into orbit and successfully brought it back to Earth: the United States, Russia, China, and SpaceX”.² While this is a monumental accomplishment for private industry, we cannot ignore the value of public–private partnerships and the role that government played in enabling this incredible achievement.In this paper I will examine how public–private partnerships are enabling the development of the commercial space industry, viewed through the lens of the Rethinking Business Institutional Hybrid Framework put forward by University of Oxford professors Marc Ventresca and Alex Nichols in their Rethinking Business MBA course. I intend to demonstrate that the NASA versus Commercial Space argument is a false dichotomy and that only by working together can both sectors continue to push the boundaries of space travel and exploration. I plan to do this by first discussing how the NASA-SpaceX partnership came about and the reasoning behind it. I will then explore what a public–private partnership (PPP) is, as compared to other government privatization schemes, and explain why Space Act Agreements are significantly different from anything done previously. I will then analyze the impact of these agreements and outline their benefits in order to demonstrate the value they create, especially in areas of mutual value creation and economic development.     

Evaluation on real-time dynamic performance of BDS in PPP,RTK, and INS tightly aided modes

Since China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system (BDS) began to provide regional navigation service for Asia-Pacific region after 2012, more new generation BDS satellites have been launched to further expand BDS’s coverage to be global. In this contribution, precise positioning models based on BDS and the corresponding mathematical algorithms are presented in detail. Then, an evaluation on BDS’s real-time dynamic positioning and navigation performance is presented in Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Real-time Kinematic (RTK), Inertial Navigation System (INS) tightly aided PPP and RTK modes by processing a set of land-borne vehicle experiment data. Results indicate that BDS positioning Root Mean Square (RMS) in north, east, and vertical components are 2.0, 2.7, and 7.6?cm in RTK mode and 7.8, 14.7, and 24.8?cm in PPP mode, which are close to GPS positioning accuracy. Meanwhile, with the help of INS, about 38.8%, 67.5%, and 66.5% improvements can be obtained by using PPP/INS tight-integration mode. Such enhancements in RTK/INS tight-integration mode are 14.1%, 34.0%, and 41.9%. Moreover, the accuracy of velocimetry and attitude determination can be improved to be better than 1?cm/s and 0.1°, respectively. Besides, the continuity and reliability of BDS in both PPP and RTK modes can also be ameliorated significantly by INS during satellite signal missing periods.     

面向Android智能终端的多模GNSS实时非差精密定位

Android操作系统中全球导航卫星系统(GNSS)原始数据的开放为大众高精度位置服务的应用带来了重要机遇。在对Android系统GNSS原始数据特性分析的基础上,利用智能终端GNSS原始数据实现了实时非差精密定位,研制了面向Android平台的实时精密单点定位(PPP)软件PPPAnd,并开展了实际环境下的定位测试。测试结果表明:基于Android终端GNSS原始数据的实时静态伪距单点定位精度(RMS)为1.16m(水平方向)和1.51m(垂直方向),较其自身位置速度和时间(PVT)解算结果分别提高了70%和76%;实时静态精密单点定位解算结果的精度(RMS)为0.62m(水平方向)和0.66m(垂直方向),较PVT结果分别提高了87%和82%,精度收敛至1m以内所需时间约8min,并且收敛后的精度可达亚米级;城市环境中车载实时动态精密单点定位的水平和垂直精度(RMS)分别约为1.32m和0.81m,较PVT结果分别提高了39%和65%。     

Improvement of PPP-inferred tropospheric estimates by integer ambiguity resolution

Integer ambiguity resolution in Precise Point Positioning (PPP) can improve positioning accuracy and reduce convergence time. The decoupled clock model proposed by Collins (2008) has been used to facilitate integer ambiguity resolution in PPP, and research has been conducted to assess the model’s potential to improve positioning accuracy and reduce positioning convergence time. In particular, the biggest benefits have been identified for the positioning solutions within short observation periods such as one hour. However, there is little work reported about the model’s potential to improve the estimation of the tropospheric parameter within short observation periods. This paper investigates the effect of PPP ambiguity resolution on the accuracy of the tropospheric estimates within one hour.     

基于RTS滤波的GPS+BDS 非差非组合PPP/INS紧组合模型

GPS高精度定位技术在动态复杂环境中,其定位精度、可靠性和连续性因卫星信号频繁失锁而变差。为此,提出了采用基于RTS滤波(Rauch-Tung-Striebel Filter)的GPS+BDS非差非组合PPP(Precise Point Positioning)与INS(Inertial Navigation System)紧组合模型的策略来克服GPS在动态定位中的弱点。其中,采用GPS+BDS双系统观测数据,可提高PPP解算中的可用卫星数,改善星站间定位几何强度和提高PPP收敛速度;采用PPP/INS紧组合,利用INS的自主定位特性和短期高精度特性,可有效改善复杂环境下的定位精度和连续性;采用RTS滤波,可进一步提高PPP/INS紧组合性能。首先推导了GPS+BDS非差非组合函数模型、PPP/INS紧组合函数模型和RTS滤波函数模型,然后利用一组车载动态数据,对动态GPS PPP、GPS+BDS PPP、GPS/INS紧组合、GPS+BDS PPP/INS紧组合和基于RTS的GPS+BDS PPP/IMU紧组合的定位、测速和定姿性能进行分析。实验结果表明,该方案可有效提高定位(58%～72%)、测速(74%～82%)和定姿(4%～23%)精度,特别是对卫星失锁期间的定位性能改善尤为明显。