Centimetre-Level Relative Positioning of Multiple Moving Platforms using Ambiguity Constraints

Ning Luo

Abstract:	The precise relative positioning of multiple moving platforms has numerous applications. To obtain cm-level positioning accuracy, the approach of measuring relative GPS carrier phase with ambiguities fixed should be adopted. Furthermore, the redundancy provided by the multiplicity of platforms can speed up the time to ambiguity fixing, while at the same time improve the reliability to detect wrong fixes. This paper first presents an approach of effectively constructing ambiguity constraints through the multiplicity of platforms. Then a method of using available ambiguity constraints to position multiple moving platforms with respect to each other is introduced. Various scenarios are designed to investigate the effects of different system parameters on this approach with a configuration of 4 moving platforms. Results from simulations show that the use of the ambiguity constraints can improve the time to ambiguity fixing by more than 70%, depending on the magnitude of the measurement errors. In other words, given the fixing time, the effective inter-platform distance is greatly increased. In addition, the use of ambiguities constraints enhances the ability of the system to detect wrong fixes.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 13th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2000) September 19 - 22, 2000 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	113 - 122
Cite this article:	Luo, Ning, "Centimetre-Level Relative Positioning of Multiple Moving Platforms using Ambiguity Constraints," Proceedings of the 13th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2000), Salt Lake City, UT, September 2000, pp. 113-122.
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