RTK Solutions Research Articles

Positioning Performance Limits of GNSS Meta-Signals and HO-BOC Signals.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are the main source of position, navigation, and timing (PNT) information and will be a key player in the next-generation intelligent transportation systems and safety-critical applications, but several limitations need to be overcome to meet the stringent performance requirements. One of the open issues is how to provide precise PNT solutions in harsh propagation environments. Under nominal conditions, the former is typically achieved by exploiting carrier phase information through precise positioning techniques, but these methods are very sensitive to the quality of phase observables. Another option that is gaining interest in the scientific community is the use of large bandwidth signals, which allow obtaining a better baseband resolution, and therefore more precise code-based observables. Two options may be considered: (i) high-order binary offset carrier (HO-BOC) modulations or (ii) the concept of GNSS meta-signals. In this contribution, we assess the time-delay and phase maximum likelihood (ML) estimation performance limits of such signals, together with the performance translation into the position domain, considering single point positioning (SPP) and RTK solutions, being an important missing point in the literature. A comprehensive discussion is provided on the estimators’ behavior, the corresponding ML threshold regions, the impact of good and bad satellite constellation geometries, and final conclusions on the best candidates, which may lead to precise solutions under harsh conditions. It is found that if the receiver is constrained by the receiver bandwidth, the best choices are the L1-M or E6-Public Regulated Service (PRS) signals. If the receiver is able to operate at 60 MHz, it is recommended to exploit the full-bandwidth Galileo E5 signal. In terms of robustness and performance, if the receiver can operate at 135 MHz, the best choice is to use the GNSS meta-signals E5 + E6 or B2 + B3, which provide the best overall performances regardless of the positioning method used, the satellite constellation geometry, or the propagation conditions.

Improved kinematic Precise Point Positioning performance with the use of map constraints

Abstract A positioning approach combining satellite measurements with a map representing the ground-truth trajectory is developed with the main objective of improving the availability of solutions for a mobile vehicle. For the positioning model, the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique is augmented with an alternative map-matching to find a probable space where the true vehicle or platform position is located. Then, by using a selection criterion based on the precise carrier phase residuals, the best candidate position within the space can be determined. This process provides an accurate initial position to the PPP filter, different from the standard PPP approach that relies on a point position using the less accurate pseudorange observables. A controlled experiment of a mobile receiver navigating over a pre-defined trajectory was conducted. The results show that the approach offers an instantaneous initial convergence, eliminating the re-convergences during two GNSS obstructions of 32 and 17 seconds, while constantly keeping the solution on the correct trajectory, even when tracking 3 to 2 satellites. This approach outperforms the standard PPP and RTK solutions in terms of convergences and re-convergences. These results are corroborated when comparing the average and standard deviation of residuals to the standard PPP model. For the pseudorange residuals, improvements of 17.5 cm and 24.3 cm in the average and standard deviation respectively were achieved. The carrier phase residuals standard deviation of the proposed approach was 3 cm better than that of the standard PPP.

Advanced Multi-Engine Platform (AMP™) – A Way to Robust RTK

Abstract The paper describes the Advanced Multi-Engine Platform (AMP™) – Topcon’s patent pending technique, which is capable to improve RTK performance, based on the idea of running several RTK engines in parallel. The performance of AMP™ is dependent on Topcon receiver board, where it has been implemented, and the best results are achieved with B210 board. The main specifics of B210 is that it has two RF front-ends and a single digital section. Such an architecture allows for calculating heading and tilt within a single receiver board, and providing better RTK performance due to synergy of attitude determination and RTK solutions from two antennas, calculated within a single digital section. The paper describes specifics of B210 board along with mathematical aspects of AMP™ and its logic. The test results demonstrate noticeable improvements in RTK performance for B210 receiver board with AMP™, compared with the classical single-engine RTK approach.

Performance of Real-Time Precise Point Positioning

The IGS Real-time Pilot Project (IGS-RTPP) provides real-time precise orbits and clocks, which support real-time positioning for single stations over large areas using the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique. This paper investigates the impact of real-time orbits, network configuration, and analysis strategies on real-time PPP implementation and demonstrates the real-time PPP performance. One month of data from the IGS network is analyzed in a real-time simulation mode. Results reveal the following: (1) In clock estimation, differential approaches are much more efficient than the zero-differenced approach. (2) The precision of IGS Ultra rapid (IGU) orbits could meet the IGS-RTPP requirement for precise clock estimation and PPP positioning. (3) Considering efficiency and precision, a network with 50 stations is recommended for the IGS-RTPP. It is demonstrated that the real-time satellite clock precision is 0.1 ns supporting hourly static PPP with a mean precision of 2–3 cm in the North component and 3–4 cm in the other components. Kinematic PPP assessed with onboard GPS data collected from a buoy provided mean coordinate precision of 2.2, 4.2, 6.1 cm in the North, East and Up directions, compared to the RTK solutions.

Estimation and Mitigation of the Main Errors for Centimetre-level Compass RTK Solutions over Medium-Long Baselines

Centimetre-level RTK solutions are mainly influenced by satellite orbit errors, ionospheric and tropospheric delays, and measurement noise (including multipath effects). Estimation and mitigation of the main errors for the CM-level Compass RTK solutions over medium-long baselines are investigated. Tests conducted for this research lead to the following conclusions: 1.For 100 km baselines, a 4 cm error in height component will be induced by a 10 m orbit error. For longer baselines, rapid precise ephemeris will be needed for CM-level accuracy RTK solutions.2.The residual ionospheric delay error can be eliminated using the optimal triple-frequency ionosphere-free linear combination with the coefficients of 2·6087, −0·5175 and −1·0912 respectively for observations on f1, f2 and f3 frequencies. This combination is optimal in terms of its noise level, e.g., the noise is only amplified three times. It can be used for high accuracy RTK positioning.3.The residual tropospheric delay can be resolved for the introduced relative zenith tropospheric delay (RZTD) parameters.It is shown that the RTK solutions estimated from the least squares (LS) with the RZTD parameters are worse than that without these parameters. For instance, the errors in the height components are amplified approximately three times, which may be caused by the strong correlation between the introduced RZTD parameters and the height components. However, considering the fact that the residual zenith tropospheric delays vary slowly with time and the variation can be assumed to follow a random walk process, the RTK solutions can be improved using the Kalman filter and a priori information for the RZTD parameters.

EVA: GPS-based extended velocity and acceleration determination

In this work, a new GPS carrier phase-based velocity and acceleration determination method is presented that extends the effective range of previous techniques. The method is named ‘EVA’, and may find applications in fields such as airborne gravimetry when rough terrain or water bodies make difficult or impractical to set up nearby GPS reference receivers. The EVA method is similar to methods such as Kennedy (Precise acceleration determination from carrier phase measurements. In: Proceedings of the 15th international technical meeting of the satellite division of the Institute of Navigation. ION GPS 2002, Portland pp 962–972, 2002b) since it uses L1 carrier phase observables for velocity and acceleration determination. However, it introduces a wide network of stations and it is independent of precise clock information because it estimates satellite clock drifts and drift rates ‘on-the-fly’, requiring only orbit data of sufficient quality. Moreover, with EVA the solution rate is only limited by data rate, and not by the available precise satellite clocks data rate. The results obtained are more robust for long baselines than the results obtained with the reference Kennedy method. An advantage of being independent of precise clock information is that, beside IGS Final products, also the Rapid, Ultra-Rapid (observed) and Ultra-Rapid (predicted) products may be used. Moreover, the EVA technique may also use the undifferenced ionosphere-free carrier phase combination (LC), overcoming baseline limitations in cases where ionosphere gradients may be an issue and very low biases are required. During the development of this work, some problems were found in the velocity estimation process of the Kennedy method. The sources of the problems were identified, and an improved version of the Kennedy method was used for this research work. An experiment was performed using a light aircraft flying over the Pyrenees, showing that both EVA and the improved Kennedy methods are able to cope with the dynamics of mountainous flight. A RTK-derived solution was also generated, and when comparing the three methods to a known zero-velocity reference the results yielded similar performance. The EVA and the improved-Kennedy methods outperformed the RTK solutions, and the EVA method provided the best results in this experiment. Finally, both the improved version of the Kennedy method and the EVA method were applied to a network in equatorial South America with baselines of more than 1,770 km, and during local noon. Under this tough scenario, the EVA method showed a clear advantage for all components of velocity and acceleration, yielding better and more robust results.

Sequential Multiplex Analyte Capturing for Phosphoprotein Profiling

Microarray-based sandwich immunoassays can simultaneously detect dozens of proteins. However, their use in quantifying large numbers of proteins is hampered by cross-reactivity and incompatibilities caused by the immunoassays themselves. Sequential multiplex analyte capturing addresses these problems by repeatedly probing the same sample with different sets of antibody-coated, magnetic suspension bead arrays. As a miniaturized immunoassay format, suspension bead array-based assays fulfill the criteria of the ambient analyte theory, and our experiments reveal that the analyte concentrations are not significantly changed. The value of sequential multiplex analyte capturing was demonstrated by probing tumor cell line lysates for the abundance of seven different receptor tyrosine kinases and their degree of phosphorylation and by measuring the complex phosphorylation pattern of the epidermal growth factor receptor in the same sample from the same cavity.