Improving GPS Receivers Positioning in Weak Signal Environments Based on Fuzzy SSMF-FFT and Fuzzy Kalman Filter

Abstract

With the advent of global positioning system (GPS) and the increasing expansion of technology, improving GPS receivers positioning has attracted great attention. When the signal received by these receivers is weak, receiver functioning becomes impaired. Due to the existing noise and the presence of Doppler shift in weak signal conditions, the signal acquisition section becomes problematic and in weak signal conditions or phase lock loop (PLL), the tracking section design of noise conditions gets difficult. In case of a lock loss on the signal, the user will not be able to calculate the Doppler frequency and the system will diverge. Therefore, a robust algorithm for the GPS receiver PLL is very vital. In this paper, the squared segmented matched filter-fast Fourier transform algorithm is used to improve the acquisition of weak GPS signals with an average SNR of 15 dB. By using the matched filter, the SNR is maximized and the code phase estimation will be more accurately. Also, the use of a segmented filter before the FFT reduces the number of FFT points and therefore, the computational complexity is reduced. To calculate the number of batches and obtain the best acquisition output, in the proposed algorithm, the system becomes fuzzy. In tracking section, fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) with the PLL based on fuzzy Kalman filter (FKF) is used to reinforce it against weak signal environments. The FRFT is used for estimating frequency and acceleration, and a third-order FKF is used for designing the PLL. As a result of these changes, the RMSE of positioning is improved more than 35%.