NAVIGATION SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH LOCATION-AWARE ACCURACY AND/OR POWER ADJUSTMENTS

• US 20140214314A1
• Filed: 11/16/2012
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Segev, Jonathan, Reshef, Ehud
• Granted Patent: US 9,612,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/410
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/47 the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity

Abstract

In a navigation system and method, location-aware adjustments may be made to the accuracy and/or power of the navigation system by changing at least one setting of a navigation system receiver in response to at least one characteristic of a navigation route and/or an estimated current position of the receiver. By providing location-aware adjustments, the accuracy may be increased when a higher accuracy is desired and may be decreased when a lower accuracy is sufficient based on the receiver location. A higher accuracy setting may be used, for example, when the estimated current position of a navigation system receiver is within the vicinity of a waypoint along the navigation route and a lower accuracy setting may be used at other times to reduce power consumption. Of course, many alternatives, variations, and modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining navigation data representative of at least an estimated current position of a navigation system receiver; and

changing at least one accuracy and/or power setting of the navigation system receiver in response to the estimated current position.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining user destination data representative of a destination location;

determining, in the navigation system receiver, a navigation route in response to the destination location; and

wherein changing at least one accuracy setting of the navigation system receiver includes changing at least one accuracy setting in response to a characteristic of the determined navigation route.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the navigation data includes position, velocity and time (PVT) data representative of estimated position, velocity and time, and wherein position is defined using World Geodetic System (WGS) coordinates.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein changing the accuracy setting of the navigation system receiver in response to the characteristic of the calculated navigation route and the estimated current position comprises:

identifying a higher accuracy waypoint along the calculated navigation route;

determining if the estimated current position is within a predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint;

applying a first accuracy setting if the estimated current position is within the predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint; and

applying a second accuracy setting if the estimated current position is not within the predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint, wherein the first accuracy setting provides higher accuracy navigation data than the second accuracy setting.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the navigation data includes position, velocity and time (PVT) data representative of estimated position, velocity and time, and wherein the PVT data is provided at a higher rate for the first accuracy setting than for the second accuracy setting.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein a distance root mean square (DRMS) accuracy measurement is lower for the first accuracy setting than for the second accuracy setting.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein a dilution of precision (DOP) accuracy measurement is lower for the first accuracy setting than for the second accuracy setting.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the second accuracy setting requires lower power consumption in the navigation system receiver than the first accuracy setting.

9. The method of claim 2 further comprising obtaining map data representative of a predefined map, wherein the navigation route is calculated along the predefined map, and wherein the higher accuracy waypoints are identified on the predefined map.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining navigation data comprises:

receiving a plurality of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals in the navigation system receiver, wherein the GNSS signals include at least a satellite transmission time and position;

processing the GNSS signals to determine pseudorange measurements;

processing the pseudorange measurements to determine position, velocity and time (PVT) data; and

providing the PVT data to an application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein changing the accuracy setting includes changing a number of GNSS signals that are processed to determine pseudorange measurements.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein changing the accuracy setting includes changing a sampling rate of the GNSS signals.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein changing the accuracy setting includes changing a rate of reporting the PVT data to the application.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein changing the accuracy setting include changing signal quality parameters.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein changing the accuracy setting include processing the GNSS signals and/or pseudorange measurements with different accuracy parameters.

16. A navigation system receiver comprising;

a satellite signal receiver configured to receive a plurality of satellite signals broadcast from a plurality of satellites, respectively;

a tracker configured to process the satellite signals to obtain measurement data representative of measurements relative to the satellites, respectively;

a navigator configured to process the measurement data to obtain position, velocity and time (PVT) data representative of an estimated position, velocity and time of the navigation system receiver; and

an application configured to receive user input, to determine a navigation route, to provide navigation instruction in response to the PVT data, and to cause a change of an accuracy setting in response to a characteristic of the determined navigation route and/or the estimated current position.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the application is configured to identify a higher accuracy waypoint along the calculated navigation route, to determine if the estimated current position is within a predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint, and to cause a first accuracy setting to be applied if the estimated current position is within the predetermined distance front the higher accuracy waypoint and cause a second accuracy setting to be applied if the estimated current position is not within the predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint, wherein the first accuracy setting provides higher accuracy navigation data than the second accuracy setting.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the satellite signal receiver is configured to receive a plurality of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals including at least a satellite transmission time and position data, wherein the tracker is configured to process the satellite transmission time and position data to determine pseudorange measurements, and wherein the navigator is configured to process the pseudorange measurements to determine position, velocity and time (PVT) data.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the application is configured to cause a change in signal and data processing to change the accuracy setting.

20. A tangible computer-readable medium including instructions stored thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining navigation data representative of at least an estimated current position of a navigation system receiver; and

changing at least one accuracy setting of the navigation system receiver in response to the estimated current position.

21. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein instructions stored thereon which, When executed by one or more processors, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining user destination data representative of a destination location;

determining, in the navigation system receiver, a navigation route in response to the destination location; and

wherein changing at least one accuracy setting of the navigation system receiver includes changing at least one accuracy setting in response to a characteristic of the determined navigation route.

22. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein changing the accuracy setting of the navigation system receiver in response to the characteristic of the calculated navigation route comprises:

identifying a higher accuracy waypoint along the calculated navigation route;

determining if the estimated current position is within a predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint;

applying a first accuracy setting if the estimated current position is within the predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint; and

applying a second accuracy setting if the estimated current position is not within the predetermined distance from the higher accuracy waypoint, wherein the first accuracy setting provides higher accuracy navigation data than the second accuracy setting.