Analysis of Wide Area Multilateration Localization Accuracy Under Different Stations Layout ond Aircraft Height

Abstract

Layout of stations and height of aircraft are very important to localization accuracy of wide area multilateration (WAM) system, and the error produced by layout of stations and height of aircraft may influence WAM system’s localization accuracy. To find the approach to reduce the error, this paper firstly calculates relationship between localization accuracy and height error according to hyperbolic algorithm and least square method, and obtains the change law of horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP) and vertical dilution of precision (VDOP) with height. Secondly, the system localization precision of levels of the same height and levels of different aircraft heights after giving consideration to the various circumstances of wide area stations layout are simulated and analyzed. Thirdly, the impact of different station layouts and baseline length of the levels of the same height on localization precision are discussed. Simulation and discussion results show that the aircraft height has a large impact on the WAM system’s localization precision. In particular, the vertical localization precision reduces obviously when the height is low. When the height is unchanged, a proper station layout and baseline length can improve the system’s localization precision.