GNSS Smartphones Positioning: Advances and Challenges

The capabilities of smartphones have greatly evolved over the past decade. With advanced features provided by their integrated Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) chipset and other additional sensors such as the MicroElectro Mechanical System (MEMS) inertial sensors, magnetometers, barometers, and high-resolution cameras, smartphones are now a powerful tool for pedestrian and automotive navigation as well as for many other applications such as mobile mapping, health monitoring, and gaming.

However, one of the major challenges of using smartphones for these applications is the large errors associated with their sensors' observations. These errors can significantly affect the achievable performance and accuracy, particularly in scenarios where GNSS signals are degraded or unavailable in environments such as deep urban canyons or indoors.

This Special Issue calls for contributions that focus on smartphones positioning and all related applications using GNSS and other integrated sensors.  We are particularly interested in original papers that address innovative techniques, methods, and algorithms for navigation using a smartphone in GNSS-degraded or denied scenarios, such as in presence of urban canyons or in indoor environments.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Pedestrian, automotive navigation, and situational awareness in challenging environments (e.g., deep urban canyon and tunnels);
• Approaches, methods, and algorithms for positioning and related applications that utilize one or more sensor embedded in modern smartphones, such as GNSS, UWB receivers, IMU, magnetometers, and barometers;
• Advanced estimation algorithms and sensor fusion methods including innovative filter designs, use of motion constraints, and map aiding;
• High-precision GNSS processing using carrier phase measurements, such as robust carrier phase tracking and fast ambiguity resolution;
• Exploration of signal of opportunities for smartphone positioning and navigation, including WIFI, Bluetooth, 5G, and LEO satellite signals or signals from other communication systems;
• Artificial-intelligence- and machine-learning-based methods for positioning and fault detection.

Dr. Vincenzo Capuano
Dr. Liangchun Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• GNSS
• GPS
• INS
• positioning
• signal processing
• sensor fusion
• smartphones