System and method for frequency domain correction of global navigation satellite system pseudorance measurements in receivers having controlled reception pattern antennas

• US 8,154,445 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Maenpa, Jon E., Hautzik, Andrew M., Keegan, Richard G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Issing, Gregory C
• Application Number:
  US12/750,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20110241939A1
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.62, 342/357.69, 342/357.77
• US Class Current: 342/357.62
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/18 Military applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/23 Testing, monitoring, correcting or calibrating of receiver elements

Abstract

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) pseudorange measurements must be compensated for receiver hardware and directionally dependent antenna errors to obtain desired accuracies for high precision GNSS positioning applications. The problem of pseudorange measurement errors resulting from directionally dependent group delays is not an issue in Fixed Reception Pattern Antenna (FRPA) GNSS sensors. However, for the complex case of a GNSS receiver employing a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) and dynamic beam steering, the multiplicity of combinations of antenna element outputs makes compensation of directionally dependent antenna induced errors more difficult, as the simple subtraction that might be used for FRPA compensation does not work with a CRPA. Example embodiments provide for frequency domain correction of GNSS pseudorange measurements in CRPA receivers. The correction takes place in the signal processing of the satellite signals, after they have been converted to the frequency domain, but before they are formed into beams for the respective satellites.

Claims

1. An apparatus for calibrating a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver system for group delay errors in GNSS transmitter signals, the apparatus comprising:

a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) comprising a plurality of receiving elements and configured to sense a plurality of signals from a plurality of GNSS transmitters using one or more transmitter frequencies;

a signal conditioner configured to convert a plurality of sensed GNSS signals to a plurality of time domain digital signals; and

a processor configured to;

convert the time domain digital signals into a plurality of frequency domain digital signals;

access group delay calibration correction data for combinations of the plurality of receiving elements, a plurality of transmitter orientations with respect to the CRPA, and the one or more transmitter frequencies;

compensate the frequency domain digital signals by the group delay calibration correction data to obtain a plurality of compensated frequency domain digital signals;

combine the compensated frequency domain digital signals by GNSS transmitter and frequency to obtain a plurality of frequency domain filtered signals;

convert the frequency domain filtered signals into a plurality of time domain filtered signals; and

track code modulations of the time domain filtered signals and convert the time domain filtered signals into GNSS pseudorange measurements for the plurality of GNSS transmitters at the one or more transmitter frequencies.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to track the code modulations of the time domain filtered signals and convert the time domain filtered signals into pseudorange measurements by using a plurality of delay-locked loops.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the transmitter orientation with respect to the CRPA for each of the plurality of GNSS transmitters by obtaining a directional angle from the CRPA to each of the plurality of GNSS transmitters, obtaining an attitude of the CRPA, and combining the directional angle from the CRPA and the attitude of the CRPA for each of the plurality of GNSS transmitters.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the GNSS uses two or more transmitter frequencies and the group delay calibration correction data is further organized by the two or more transmitter frequencies.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to perform in real time.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the GNSS is Global Positioning System (GPS).

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the CRPA has seven elements.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the apparatus is mounted on a dynamic platform.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is mounted on an aircraft, ship, or land vehicle and wherein the apparatus determines the pseudorange measurements accounting for the variable attitude of the dynamic platform.

10. A method for calibrating a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver system for group delay errors in GNSS transmitter signals, the method comprising:

sensing a plurality of signals from a plurality of GNSS transmitters with a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) comprising a plurality of receiving elements using one or more transmitter frequencies;

converting the sensed GNSS signals to a plurality of time domain digital signals;

converting the time domain digital signals into a plurality of frequency domain digital signals;

accessing group delay calibration correction data for combinations of the plurality of receiving elements, a plurality of transmitter orientations with respect to the CRPA, and the one or more transmitter frequencies;

compensating the frequency domain digital signals by the group delay calibration correction data to obtain a plurality of compensated frequency domain digital signals;

combining the compensated frequency domain digital signals by GNSS transmitter and frequency to obtain a plurality of frequency domain filtered signals;

converting the frequency domain filtered signals into a plurality of time domain filtered signals; and

tracking code modulations of the time domain filtered signals and converting the time domain filtered signals into GNSS pseudorange measurements for the plurality of GNSS transmitters at the one or more transmitter frequencies.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining the transmitter orientation with respect to the CRPA for each of the plurality of GNSS transmitters, comprising;

obtaining a directional angle from the CRPA to each of the plurality of GNSS transmitters;

obtaining an attitude of the CRPA; and

combining the directional angle from the CRPA and the attitude of the CRPA for each of the plurality of GNSS transmitters,

wherein the tracking the code modulations of the time domain filtered signals and converting the filtered signals into pseudorange measurements comprises using a plurality of delay-locked loops.