Automatic Calibration Technique for Radio Positioning Systems

Remi Ferland, Michel Morin, John B. Schleppe

Abstract:	McElhanney Surveying & Engineering Ltd., like all users of medium frequency phase comparison systems, has been hindered over the years by some of their inherent drawbacks. The weaknesses are twofold: first there is a need to calibrate or determine the system biases for factors such as speed of propagation changes, land path, phase lag, inductance field variations and internal instrument measurement errors; second, the loss of lane count due to skywave effects or equipment failures and hence the suspension of operations ·until lane· count is reacquired, can be time consuming and costly. Over the last several years in operations off the East Coast of Canada, the Beaufort Sea, Caribbean and Western Africa, various calibration methods have been adopted and developed in house to reduce this lost survey time and enhance accuracy. In a continuing effort to supply the best results possible a new technique has been developed and field tested during 1983 to enhance accuracy and reduce survey downtime of most radio positioning systems. The method utilizes a memory and time efficient phased adjustment technique, which runs in program background to solve for calibration values, external biases and lane count. This paper details our past experiences in solving the calibration problems and presents the development and testing of the McElhanney time saving and accuracy enhancing "NAVPAK AUTO CALIBRATION" package.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1984 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 17 - 19, 1984 San Diego, CA
Pages:	220 - 224
Cite this article:	Ferland, Remi, Morin, Michel, Schleppe, John B., "Automatic Calibration Technique for Radio Positioning Systems," Proceedings of the 1984 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 1984, pp. 220-224.
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