Positioning apparatus and positioning system

• US 7,733,269 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2006
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sueo Sugimoto, Yukihiro Kubo
• Original Assignee: Sueo Sugimoto, Yukihiro Kubo
• Inventors: Kubo, Yukihiro, Sugimoto, Sueo
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, DAO LINDA
• Application Number:
  US11/913,623
• Publication Number:
  US 20090091494A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,491 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.02, 342/357.04, 342/357.09, 342/357.12, 342/357.15, 701/207, 701/214
• US Class Current: 342/357.23
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/41 Differential correction, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/43 using carrier phase measurements, e.g. kinematic positioning; using long or short baseline interferometry

Abstract

A mobile station (1) gets the carrier phase integration values and the code pseudorange which is based on the satellites'"'"' data transmitted from the satellites (SAT1-SATn). The mobile station (1) gets the data including the delay data of the ionosphere from a navigation message. And the mobile station (1) gets the data including the delay data of the ionosphere from data transmitted from a base-station, and fits data together. Utilizing these data from the two data sources, the mobile station (1) sets one linear regression equation and estimates the own position.

Claims

1. A positioning apparatus comprising:

a satellite signal receiver which receives satellites'"'"' signals transmitted from the satellites,

a base-station data receiver whose position is known, the base-station data receiver receiving a base-station positioning data from a base-station, and

a position estimating device which;

observes code pseudoranges and carrier phase integration values at the satellite signal receiver and the satellites by utilizing satellite data got by the satellite signal receiver;

sets up unknown values which includes integer ambiguity at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, clock errors at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, delays of an ionosphere at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, delays of an troposphere at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, a position of the satellite signal receiver, and except a position of the base-station data receiver;

linear-approximates a position of the satellite signal receiver with a Linear Taylor series expansion about estimated positions of the satellite signal receiver;

sets up explanatory variables that include the integer ambiguities, the clock errors, the delays of the ionosphere, the delays of the troposphere, and the position of the satellite signal receiver;

sets up objective variables that include the carrier phase integration values, and the code pseudoranges observed by the satellite signal receiver and the base-station;

derives only one linear regression equation which includes the objective variables and the explanatory variables; and

estimates the position of the satellite signal receiver.

2. The positioning apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the position estimating device fixes the integer ambiguity by using an estimation of the integer ambiguity such as the LAMBDA method, and estimates the position of the satellite signal receiver.

3. The positioning apparatus according claim 2,

wherein the position estimating device applies the Kalmann Filter to the linear regression equation.

4. The positioning apparatus according claim 3,

wherein the position estimating device calculates a difference value of the integer ambiguities at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, a difference value of the delay of the ionosphere at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, and a difference value of the delay of the troposphere at the satellite signal receiver and the base-station, and apply at least one difference value to the linear regression equation.

5. A positioning system comprising:

the positioning apparatuses according to the claim 1,

wherein the base-station is a virtual base-station set near the positioning apparatus based on the base-station positioning data which are got at least three existing base-stations;

one of the existing base-station sets the unknown values and the observed values of the linear regression equation based on the estimated position of the satellite signal receiver; and

the base-station data receiver receives data got from the existing base-station, the position estimating device estimates the position.

6. The positioning system according to the claim 5,

wherein the data related to the virtual base-station is set on the basis of the weights proportioned by the exponential in inverse of the distance between the virtual base-station and the existing base-station.