Navagation apparatus with improved attitude determination
First Claim
1. An apparatus for use with a plurality of GPS earth satellites in estimating one or more states of a platform, the platform having a reference point that represents the position of the platform and at least two receiving points corresponding to the locations of antennas for receiving satellite signals, the apparatus comprising:
- a processor for computing estimates of the errors in the platform states from inputs comprising (1) one or more measured phase double-differences obtained from signals transmitted by a plurality of satellites, (2) the estimated position of the reference point, (3) the estimated positions of the receiving points relative to the reference point, and (4) the positions of the satellites, a phase double-difference being defined as the difference in phase differences for signals received from two satellites, a phase difference being the difference in carrier phase of a satellite signal received at two receiving points on the platform.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The navigation apparatus with improved attitude determination is intended for use on a mobile platform. It combines data from a platform inertial navigation unit and carrier phase data for a plurality of GPS satellite signals received at a plurality of receiving points on the platform for the purpose of obtaining estimates of the navigation states of the platform. The navigation apparatus comprises a processor which computes estimates of the states from inputs comprising (1) one or more measured phase double-differences calculated from the measured satellite signal carrier phases, (2) the estimated position of the platform, (3) the estimated positions of the receiving points, and (4) the positions of the satellites, a phase double-difference being defined as the difference in phase differences for signals received from two satellites and a phase difference being defined as the difference in carrier phase of a satellite signal received at two receiving points. The navigation and attitude determination solution is obtained by means of a Kalman filter process wherein the observables comprise measured phase double-differences and each predicted phase double-difference is obtained by operating on the Kalman state vector with an observation matrix defined by linearizing the equations relating the phase double-difference to the navigation states.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. An apparatus for use with a plurality of GPS earth satellites in estimating one or more states of a platform, the platform having a reference point that represents the position of the platform and at least two receiving points corresponding to the locations of antennas for receiving satellite signals, the apparatus comprising:
a processor for computing estimates of the errors in the platform states from inputs comprising (1) one or more measured phase double-differences obtained from signals transmitted by a plurality of satellites, (2) the estimated position of the reference point, (3) the estimated positions of the receiving points relative to the reference point, and (4) the positions of the satellites, a phase double-difference being defined as the difference in phase differences for signals received from two satellites, a phase difference being the difference in carrier phase of a satellite signal received at two receiving points on the platform. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of using a plurality of GPS earth satellites for estimating one or more states of a platform, the platform having a reference point that represents the position of the platform and at least two receiving points corresponding to the locations of antennas for receiving satellite signals, the method comprising the steps:
computing estimates of the errors in the platform states from inputs comprising (1) one or more measured phase double-differences obtained from signals transmitted by a plurality of satellites, (2) the estimated position of the reference point, (3) the estimated positions of the receiving points relative to the reference point, and (4) the positions of the satellites, a phase double-difference being defined as the difference in phase differences for signals received from two satellites, a phase difference being the difference in carrier phase of a satellite signal received at two receiving points on the platform, arbitrary input values being used for those quantities for which input values are not supplied. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
Specification