Tightly Coupled INS/DGPS System for Collaborative Navigation in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

G. Pages, A-D. Nguyen, B. Priot, T. Pérennou and V. Calmettes

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Navigation in harsh environments like urban canyons is still a great challenge. First, the lack of integrity in pseudorange measurements leads to performance degradation. Moreover, in case of satellite outage, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) based positioning cannot be achieved. This paper proposes to use collaborative methods to augment GNSS coverage in the case of a fleet of drones partly evolving in such harsh environments. Members of the fleet exchange positioning information on a peer-to-peer basis using their radio equipment. They simultaneously estimate the distance to the sender, using either the radio signal strength or a specific ranging equipment. The navigation algorithm is modified to integrate both peer positioning and peer ranging information Using extensive Monte-Carlo simulations, we investigate two different collaborative approaches associated with a tightly coupled Differential GPS (DGPS) and INS (Inertial Navigation System) integrated system, and two different ranging models. We show that both collaborative approaches substantially improve the positioning coverage of fleet members experiencing partial or full GNSS outage. In our setup, collaborative approaches achieve horizontal precisions of a few meters after two minutes of outage, where a standalone INS using a low-cost MEMS-based IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), would derive up to hundreds of meters.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 27th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2014) September 8 - 12, 2014 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	1855 - 1866
Cite this article:	Pages, G., Nguyen, A-D., Priot, B., Pérennou, T., Calmettes, V., "Tightly Coupled INS/DGPS System for Collaborative Navigation in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks," Proceedings of the 27th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2014), Tampa, Florida, September 2014, pp. 1855-1866.
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