2014 Early Achievement Award

Presented to: Dr. Mathieu Joerger

Citation: For outstanding contributions to the integrity of multiconstellation and multi-sensor navigation systems.

Dr. Mathieu Joerger has made major advancements in the development of optimal positioning and integrity monitoring for multi-constellation and multi-sensor navigation systems. In his PhD work, Dr. Joerger combined carrier phase GPS with laser scanner measurements for navigation in GPS-compromised environments. He introduced a novel range-domain integration concept dramatically improving the robustness of laser-based Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM). He also contributed to the Boeing-sponsored ‘iGPS’ project, investigating a high-integrity navigation system using GPS and Iridium telecommunication satellites. While working on iGPS, he established the first known method to enable direct integrity risk evaluation using a Kalman filter. This work is foundational to the design of future high integrity multi-sensor navigation systems.

Recently, Dr. Joerger pioneered innovative algorithms for ARAIM to enable safe world-wide vertical guidance of aircraft using multi-constellation GNSS. His work was the first to place solution separation and residual based RAIM on a firm, common theoretical foundation. He derived optimal methods, maximizing navigation integrity, for position estimation and fault detection in ARAIM. In parallel, he devised a new Relative RAIM method for real-time detection of GPS orbit faults and ionospheric fronts causing life-threatening navigation hazards during shipboard-landing of Navy aircraft. His most recent research for the Federal Aviation Administration defines sensor requirements to ensure safety of Unmanned Air Systems during Sense And Avoid.

Dr. Joerger received his PhD from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he was recognized for earning perfect 4.0 grade point averages during both the MS and PhD curricula. He is the winner of several ION GNSS best presentation awards and a recipient of the ION Satellite Division’s Parkinson Award (2009). He has published widely and is an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. He is a research assistant professor at IIT, where he is the project leader for JPALS and ARAIM.