GPS World, June 2017

BENEFITS OF A GNSS INS SOLUTION FOR URBAN SCENARIOS HPE vs GPs timE for a RPU red and benchmark receiver blue and b corresponding histograms ADVERTISER INDEX COMPANIES FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE JUNE 2017 WWW GPSWORLD COM GPS WORLD 65 ADVERTISER PAGE S CAST NAVIGATION 13 25 CHC NAVIGATION 17 27 COMNAV TECHNOLOGY 8 29 EFFIGIS 55 EVE ENERGY 15 31 GENEQ 62 GPS SOURCE 32 33 HEXAGON 22 INSTITUTE OF NAVIGATION ION 54 ADVERTISER PAGE S KCS BV 19 NOVATEL 35 BACK COVER RACELOGIC 9 37 RAKON 52 ROHDE SCHWARZ 5 SBG SYSTEMS 21 SEPTENTRIO 61 SKYDEL 39 INSIDE BACK COVER SPECTRACOM 7 41 ADVERTISER PAGE S SPECTRATIME 53 SPIRENT FEDERAL INSIDE FRONT COVER 43 SUZHOU FOIF CO 64 SYNTONY GNSS 11 45 TALEN X 47 57 TELEORBIT 63 UNICORE COMMUNICATIONS 49 59 By Gianluca Falco Gianluca Marucco Mario Nicola and Marco Pini Istituto Superiore Mario Boella ISMB Presented at ION ITM January 2017 T he authors of this paper deal with the development of a Robust Position Unit RPU based on the real time implementation of an advanced positioning algorithm The RPU uses a tightly coupled technique between a mass market single frequency GNSS chipset with a low cost inertial measurement unit IMU based on micro electromechanical systems MEMS and an odometer The tight integration algorithm has been obtained through the design of a complex extended Kalman filter EKF Its performance has been verified running the designed real time algorithm in different challenging environments One is an urban scenario characterized by narrow streets few satellites in view and tree lined avenues A second harsh environment is represented by a mountain area where the vehicle has driven through long tunnels overpasses and sharp road bends The tests showed how a tight integration algorithm designed by using raw data from only low cost sensors can provide real advantages at a price of careful customizations and adaptations that take into account the particular use and environment In the designed tight algorithm additional features and constraints were added with respect to a common tight strategy in order to provide a navigation solution targeted for land applications Results show a significant decrement of the positioning errors compared to those obtained with other commercial devices In particular the tightly coupled algorithm provides better estimates of the vehicle position and attitude in case of an urban scenario The improvement was measured following a standardized testing method considering the horizontal position error and the yaw angle as the main performance metrics Moreover the advantages of the embedded system based on an ad hoc tightly coupled strategy become even more evident in case of a mountain road that is characterized by frequent tunnels and steep slopes The experimental results demonstrate the possibility to employ tightly coupled architectures in low cost mass market devices In the future the improvement of MEMS technology and the evolution of GNSS with enhanced signal formats different frequency bands and more satellites in view are expected to further increase the positioning performance of mass marked devices enabling a variety of new services for road users