Search Results (40)

The ESA DIVERGENCE (Diversity Architecture for Robust GNSS Receivers in Launcher Applications) project is focused on the design of a GNSS/INS hybrid navigation system and an appropriate FDIR/FDE algorithm for GNC applications in launchers and re-entry vehicles. The main goal is to demonstrate architecture robustness with respect to possible threats and weaknesses introduced by GNSS and INS technology. A baseline navigation system architecture has been developed through a sensor fusion algorithm, which combines IMU, GNSS/DGNSS, a radar altimeter, and a star sensor to cover the accuracy requirements for all the flight phases. The navigation system has been designed to be easily adaptable to multiple applications, such as expendable launch vehicles, micro-launchers, reusable first stage boosters and unmanned re-entry vehicles. The most critical threats/failures were considered for the development of the FDIR/FDE algorithm, comprising GNSS signal outages, spoofing, satellite/receiver clock bias/drift discontinuities, IMU failures, saturation, vibration rectification, coning and sculling, and INS software numerical failures. A preliminary description of the implemented robust FDIR/FDE techniques is reported, and an analysis is conducted to compare the performance before and after FDIR/FDE algorithm implementation in a representative launcher scenario. Full article

This study investigated the accuracy and precision of a commercially available PNT solution that uses DGNSS-SBAS technology. Time and position data were sampled at a frequency of 20Hz during both a short and long trajectory of a simulated controlled dry-land slalom, as well as during a real-world on-water slalom exercise. The primary objective was to assess the positional accuracy, availability, integrity, and service continuity of the PNT solution while evaluating its ability to differentiate between trajectories. Additionally, the simulated results were compared with an on-water real-world slalom test to validate the findings. The results of the controlled dry-land slalom test indicate that the PNT solution provided accurate measurements with an overall mean ± SD Hrms of 0.20 ± 0.02 m. The integrity measures, HDOD and PDOP, were found to be ideal to excellent, with values of 0.68 ± 0.03 and 1.36 ± 0.07, respectively. The PNT solution utilised an average of 20 ± 1 satellites from the constellation, resulting in an accuracy of <1.5% when measuring the known trajectory of 50 simulated slalom runs. The data from the real-world on-water slalom test supported these findings, providing similar or improved results. Based on these findings, a PNT solution using DGNSS-SBAS can be considered an effective means of tracking athlete trajectory in the sport of canoe slalom. Future research should be conducted to quantify its efficacy more precisely. Full article

Localization of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) in indoor scenarios and GNSS-denied environments is a difficult problem, particularly in dynamic scenarios where traditional on-board equipment (such as LiDAR, radar, sonar, camera) may fail. In the framework of autonomous UAS missions, precise feedback on real-time aircraft position is very important, and several technologies alternative to GNSS-based approaches for UAS positioning in indoor navigation have been recently explored. In this paper, we propose a low-cost IPS for UAVs, based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons, which exploits the RSSI (received signal strength indicator) for distance estimation and positioning. Distance information from measured RSSI values can be degraded by multipath, reflection, and fading that cause unpredictable variability of the RSSI and may lead to poor-quality measurements. To enhance the accuracy of the position estimation, this work applies a differential distance correction (DDC) technique, similar to differential GNSS (DGNSS) and real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. The method uses differential information from a reference station positioned at known coordinates to correct the position of the rover station. A mathematical model was established to analyze the relation between the RSSI and the distance from Bluetooth devices (Eddystone BLE beacons) placed in the indoor operation field. The master reference station was a Raspberry Pi 4 model B, and the rover (unknown target) was an Arduino Nano 33 BLE microcontroller, which was mounted on-board a UAV. Position estimation was achieved by trilateration, and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) was applied, considering the nonlinear propriety of beacon signals to correct data from noise, drift, and bias errors. Experimental results and system performance analysis show the feasibility of this methodology, as well as the reduction of position uncertainty obtained by the DCC technique. Full article

Three-dimensional plasma nanostructures with high light–thermal conversion efficiency show the prospect of industrialization in various fields and have become a research hotspot in areas of light–heat utilization, solar energy capture, and so on. In this paper, a simple chemical synthesis method is proposed to prepare gold nanoparticles, and the electrophoretic deposition method is used to assemble large-area three-dimensional gold nanostructures (3D-GNSs). The light–thermal water evaporation monitoring and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements of 3D-GNSs were performed via theoretical simulation and experiments. We reveal the physical processes of local electric field optical enhancement and the light–thermal conversion of 3D-GNSs. The results show that with the help of the efficient optical trapping and super-hydrophilic surface properties of 3D-GNSs, they have a significant effect in accelerating water evaporation, which was increased by nearly eight times. At the same time, the three-dimensional SERS substrates based on gold nanosphere particles (GNSPs) and gold nanostar particles (GNSTs) had limited sensitivities of 10⁻¹⁰ M and 10⁻¹² M to R6G molecules, respectively. Therefore, 3D-GNSs show strong competitiveness in the fields of solar-energy-induced water purification and the Raman trace detection of organic molecules. Full article

To regulate the energy flow in orchard ecosystems and maintain the environment, weeding has become a necessary measure for fruit farmers, and the use of automated mowers can help reduce labor costs and improve the economic efficiency of orchards. However, due to the complexity of the geographic and spatial environment of the orchard, in particular, the loose and undulating road surface, the interference of satellite signals by large trees, etc., which decreases the positioning accuracy and stability of the positioning system of the mower, and the high cost of the sensor also affect the popularization of intelligent mowers for these applications. To address the above problems, this paper constructs a positioning system through a low-cost global navigation satellite system (GNSS), inertial measurement unit (IMU), and odometry, and utilizes the Kalman filter algorithm based on the error state for a combined GNSS/IMU positioning so that the inertial navigation system can maintain a more accurate positioning when the GNSS signals are poor. Considering the side-slip and error accumulation problems of the odometry of the traction mower, the combined GNSS/IMU positioning information is used to optimize the odometry model and improve the navigation and positioning accuracy. To reduce the measurement error of the IMU and the problem of error accumulation, this paper utilizes the nonholonomic constraint (NHC) of a lawn mower to suppress the dispersion of IMU measurement errors and constructs periodic and nonperiodic zero-velocity updating (ZUPT) strategies in combination with the travel paths of lawn mower navigation operations in the region to update the IMU data to improve the positioning accuracy and stability of the positioning system. The experiments show that the average error of the constructed positioning system is controlled within 0.15 m, the maximum error is maintained at approximately 0.3 m, and the positioning system constructed by using low-cost sensors can achieve a positioning accuracy similar to that of the differential global navigation satellite system (DGNSS), which is beneficial for the promotion and application of intelligent mowers in orchards. Full article

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology supports all phases of maritime navigation and serves as an integral component of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and, by extension, Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) systems. However, the accuracy of standalone GNSS is often insufficient for specific operations. To address this limitation, various regional and local-area solutions have been developed, such as Differential GNSS (DGNSS), Satellite Based Augmentation Service (SBAS) and Real Time Kinematic (RTK) techniques. A notable development in this field is the recent introduction of the Galileo High-Accuracy Service (HAS), which saw its initial service declared operational by the European Commission (EC) on 24 January 2023. Galileo HAS provides high-accuracy Precise Point Positioning (PPP) corrections (orbits, clocks and signal biases) for Galileo and GPS, enhancing real-time positioning performance at no additional cost to users. This article presents the results of the first Galileo HAS testing campaign conducted at sea using a buoy-laying vessel temporarily equipped with a Galileo HAS User Terminal. The results presented in this Article include accuracy and position availability performance achieved using the Galileo HAS User Terminal. The article also highlights challenges posed by high-power radio-frequency interference, which likely originated from the Long-Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system antenna on board the vessel. Furthermore, the article provides additional assessments for different phases of navigation, demonstrating better performance in slow-motion scenarios, particularly relevant to mooring and pilotage applications. In these scenarios, values for horizontal accuracy reached 0.22 m 95% and 0.13 m 68% after removing interference periods. These results are in line with the expectations outlined in the Galileo HAS Service Definition Document (SDD). Full article

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are used to provide accurate position, navigation, and time (PNT) information to users in various sectors of our society including transportation. Augmentation systems such as differential GNSS (DGNSS), real-time kinematics (RTK), and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) improve the GNSS performance, and providing reliable measurements from its reference station is very crucial. To ensure safe and accurate PNT solutions, code and carrier measurements must be monitored for potential faults or a performance degrade. Although there exist numerous methods to model and monitor the measurements, research on the carrier phase measurements is not as extensive as the code measurements. This paper introduces a split of residuals into receiver noise and multipath components to customize their estimation according to their respective statistical properties. This study also proposes a method to use machine learning-based non-linear regression to effectively model and monitor potential faults in the GNSS measurements including the carrier phase. A training dataset is used to model the nominal quantities of GNSS measurement residuals, and inflation factors are applied to over-bound the fault-free residuals. These inflated residuals are coupled with uncertainty factors to compute thresholds for monitoring carrier phase residuals, and the effectiveness of the thresholds is validated with a test dataset by achieving the false alarm rate of $6.61\times {10}^{-6}$, slightly lower than the desired level of ${10}^{-5}$. Full article

Accurate diameter at breast height (DBH) and tree height (H) information can be acquired through terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and airborne LiDAR scanner (ALS) point cloud, respectively. To utilize these two features simultaneously but avoid the difficulties of point cloud fusion, such as technical complexity and time-consuming and laborious efforts, a feature-level point cloud fusion method (FFATTe) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the TLS and ALS point cloud data in a plot are georeferenced by differential global navigation and positioning system (DGNSS) technology. Secondly, point cloud processing and feature extraction are performed for the georeferenced TLS and ALS to form feature datasets, respectively. Thirdly, the feature-level fusion of LiDAR data from different data sources is realized through spatial join according to the tree trunk location obtained from TLS and ALS, that is, the tally can be implemented at a plot. Finally, the individual tree parameters are optimized based on the tally results and fed into the binary volume model to estimate the total volume (TVS) in a large area (whole study area). The results show that the georeferenced ALS and TLS point cloud data using DGNSS RTK/PPK technology can achieve coarse registration (mean distance ≈ 40 cm), which meets the accuracy requirements for feature-level point cloud fusion. By feature-level fusion of the two point cloud data, the tally can be achieved quickly and accurately in the plot. The proposed FFATTe method achieves high accuracy (with error of 3.09%) due to its advantages of combining different LiDAR data from different sources in a simple way, and it has strong operability when acquiring TVS over large areas. Full article

Xiaomi Mi8 with a Broadcom BCM47755 chip, an Android smartphone that supports multi-constellation (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS) and dual-frequency (L1/E1 and L5/E5), was launched in May 2018. Unlike previously released smartphones, it was technically expected to provide robust precise positioning with a fast ambiguity resolution, which led many researchers to be overly optimistic about the applicability of high-accuracy techniques such as real-time kinematic (RTK) systems and precise point positioning (PPP) of smartphones. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) raw measurement quality of Android smartphones is, however, inherently far lower than that of general GNSS receivers due to their structure, which accordingly makes it difficult for them to be realized. Considering inherent limitations of smartphones such as low-quality antenna, frequent cycle slips, and the duty cycle, a practical strategy including L5 measurements, pseudo-range corrections for L5, and a weighting method is proposed in this paper. The results show that the proposed methods of L5 differential GNSS (DGNSS) and Doppler-based filtering can guarantee a positioning accuracy of 1.75 m horizontally and 4.56 m vertically in an Android device, which is comparable to the performance of commercial low-cost receivers. Full article

Satellite positioning lies within the very core of numerous Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Future Internet applications. With the emergence of connected vehicles, the performance requirements of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are constantly pushed to their limits. To this end, Cooperative Positioning (CP) solutions have attracted attention in order to enhance the accuracy and reliability of low-cost GNSS receivers, especially in complex propagation environments. In this paper, the problem of efficient and robust CP employing low-cost GNSS receivers is investigated over critical ITS scenarios. By adopting a Cooperative-Differential GNSS (C-DGNSS) framework, the target’s vehicle receiver can obtain Position–Velocity–Time (PVT) corrections from a neighboring vehicle and update its own position in real-time. A ranking module based on multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) algorithms is proposed for the neighboring vehicle rating and optimal selection. The considered MADM techniques are simulated with various weightings, normalization techniques, and criteria associated with positioning accuracy and reliability. The obtained criteria values are experimental GNSS measurements from several low-cost receivers. A comparative and sensitivity analysis are provided by evaluating the MADM algorithms in terms of ranking performance and robustness. The positioning data time series and the numerical results are then presented, and comments are made. Scoring-based and distance-based MADM methods perform better, while L1 RMS, HDOP, and Hz std are the most critical criteria. The multi-purpose applicability of the proposed scheme, not only for land vehicles, is also discussed. Full article

Remote sensing data in agriculture that are originating from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)-mounted multispectral cameras offer substantial information in assessing crop status, as well as in developing prescription maps for site-specific variable rate applications. The position accuracy of the multispectral imagery plays an important role in the quality of the final prescription maps and how well the latter correspond to the specific spatial characteristics. Although software products and developed algorithms are important in offering position corrections, they are time- and cost-intensive. The paper presents a methodology to assess the accuracy of the imagery obtained by using a mounted target prism on the UAV, which is tracked by a ground-based total station. A Parrot Sequoia+ multispectral camera was used that is widely utilized in agriculture-related remote sensing applications. Two sets of experiments were performed following routes that go along the north–south and east–west axes, while the cross-track error was calculated for all three planes, but also three-dimensional (3D) space. From the results, it was indicated that the camera’s D-GNSS receiver can offer imagery with a 3D position accuracy of up to 3.79 m, while the accuracy in the horizontal plane is higher compared to the vertical ones. Full article

The Google Smartphone Decimeter Challenge (GSDC) was a competition held in 2021, where data from a variety of instruments useful for determining a phone’s position (signals from GPS satellites, accelerometer readings, gyroscope readings, etc.) using Android smartphones were provided to be processed/assessed in regard to the most accurate determination of the longitude and latitude of user positions. One of the tools that can be utilized to process the GNSS measurements is RTKLIB. RTKLIB is an open-source GNSS processing software tool that can be used with the GNSS measurements, including code, carrier, and doppler measurements, to provide real-time kinematic (RTK), precise point positioning (PPP), and post-processed kinematic (PPK) solutions. In the GSDC, we focused on the PPK capabilities of RTKLIB, as the challenge only required post-processing of past data. Although PPK positioning is expected to provide sub-meter level accuracies, the lower quality of the Android measurements compared to geodetic receivers makes this performance difficult to achieve consistently. Another latent issue is that the original RTKLIB created by Tomoji Takasu is aimed at commercial GNSS receivers rather than smartphones. Therefore, the performance of the original RTKLIB for the GSDC is limited. Consequently, adjustments to both the code-base and the default settings are suggested. When implemented, these changes allowed RTKLIB processing to score 5th place, based on the performance submissions of the prior GSDC competition. Detailed information on what was changed, and the steps to replicate the final results, are presented in the paper. Moreover, the updated code-base, with all the implemented changes, is provided in the public repository. This paper outlines a procedure to optimize the use of RTKLIB for Android smartphone measurements, highlighting the changes needed given the low-quality measurements from the mobile phone platform (relative to the survey grade GNSS receiver), which can be used as a basis point for further optimization for future GSDC competitions. Full article

High-output-rate relative positions are required for high-speed safety-critical kinematic-to-kinematic applications such as pre-crash sensing and shipboard landing. We propose a real-time, high-output-rate relative positioning method based on the integration of a real time kinematic (RTK) differential global navigation satellite systems (DGNSS) relative positioning algorithm, carrier-phase-based tightly coupled GNSS/Inertial navigation system (TC-GNSS/INS) integration algorithm and polynomial prediction algorithm for position increment. We focus on the rarely studied issue that data broadcast rates and sampling rates have effects on the integrated relative positioning accuracy under different motion states of a moving base. A vehicle-to-vehicle field test with a frequently turning base demonstrates the advantages of the proposed method, such as low bit rate of broadcast data, high output rate of position solutions and excellent real-time tolerance of latency. The results show that compared with the 10-Hz output of sole RTK DGNSS relative positioning, the proposed method can provide centimeter-level-accuracy relative positions at an output rate of 125 Hz with a sampling rate of 1 Hz, and the bit rate can be reduced by 83.12%. A UAV-to-boat field test with straight-line-motion moving base is then carried out to validate the applicability of the proposed system for aircraft applications. The results show that the broadcast rate of position increments of the moving base can be further reduced. Full article

In recent years, low-cost single-frequency GNSS receivers have been widely used in many fields such as mass navigation and deformation monitoring; however, due to the poor signal quality of low-cost patch antennae, it is difficult for carrier phase real-time kinematic (RTK) technology to fix the integer ambiguity. Differential GNSS (DGNSS) positioning with pseudorange can effectively meet the high robustness and reliability requirements for the submeter to the meter level positioning accuracy of UVA/vehicle/aerospace users. To improve the DGNSS positioning accuracy and reliability of low-cost single-frequency GNSS receivers in complex environments, we propose a differential barometric altimetry (DBA)-assisted DGNSS positioning algorithm, which solves the DGNSS observation equations jointly and rigorously with the Earth ellipsoidal constraint equations constructed by the DBA altitude. The DBA altitude accuracy at different baseline lengths was evaluated in detail, and the DGNSS positioning performance of the single-frequency low-cost u-blox receiver NEO-M8T with a patch antenna and DGNSS/DBA combined positioning performance with the BMP280 barometer was analyzed by several sets of static and dynamic experiments under different environments. The results show that the single-frequency NEO-M8T receiver with patch antenna DGNSS positioning accuracy is submeter level in the static environment and drops to meter level in the dynamic environment. GPS+BDS dual system has higher positioning accuracy than single GPS or single BDS. DGNSS/DBA combination has higher positioning accuracy than DGNSS, especially the root mean square error (RMSE) can be improved by 30% to 80% in the U direction and slightly improved in the N and E directions. This study can provide an effective solution reference for various applications of low-cost sensor fusion positioning in the mass consumer market. Full article

The purpose of this study was to find a generic method to determine the aerial phase of ski jumping in which the athlete is in a steady gliding condition, commonly known as the ‘stable flight’ phase. The aerial phase of ski jumping was investigated from a physical point mass, rather than an athlete–action-centered perspective. An extensive data collection using a differential Global Navigation Satellite System (dGNSS) was carried out in four different hill sizes. A total of 93 jumps performed by 19 athletes of performance level, ranging from junior to World Cup, were measured. Based on our analysis, we propose a generic algorithm that identifies the stable flight based on steady glide aerodynamic conditions, independent of hill size and the performance level of the athletes. The steady gliding is defined as the condition in which the rate-of-change in the lift-to-drag-ratio ($LD$-ratio) varies within a narrow band-width described by a threshold $\tau$. For this study using dGNSS, $\tau$ amounted to $0.01$$\mathrm{s}$⁻¹, regardless of hill size and performance level. While the absolute value of $\tau$ may vary when measuring with other sensors, we argue that the methodology and algorithm proposed to find the start and end of a steady glide (stable flight) could be used in future studies as a generic definition and help clarify the communication of results and enable more precise comparisons between studies. Full article