On the Use of an Ultra-Tight Integration for Robust Navigation in Jammed Scenarios

Abstract

With the advent of new services and the evolution of transportation systems the need of a reliable and accurate knowledge of the position information became of paramount importance. Among the multiple technologies and sensors that might be used for positioning, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can be considered as the core technology and a superior system capable to provide the user with estimates of his own position in a global reference frame. Unfortunately, received GNSS signals are extremely weak and thus vulnerable to non-intentional and intentional Radio Frequency Interference. In particular, the malicious intentional interference produced by jammers is proliferating and it is becoming a serious threat for GNSS receivers. The integration of GNSS and external sensors with complementary characteristics, is the key for overcoming the weaknesses and enhancing the strengths of each sub-system. In this paper, the design of an ultra-tight hybrid navigation system is proposed with the aim to enhance the robustness of the navigation system in presence of jamming. A GNSS unit has been integrated with external sensors, namely Inertial Navigation Systems, visual sensor and odometer. Exploiting the “record and replay” of real GNSS signal artificially augmented with jamming interference within the L1 GNSS bandwidth, the performance has been assessed in controlled scenarios. The results presented in this paper show that the multi-sensor integrated system can sustain the navigation even in presence of severe jamming, although such a strong interference completely masks the GNSS signal denying the navigation of a GNSS stand-alone system. Moreover, the test procedures suitability of the record and replay approach for the jamming scenario generation and combination with real datasets are discussed and analyzed.