Virtual Spatial Diversity Antenna for GNSS Based Mobile Positioning in the Harsh Environments

Hoda Tahami, Anahid Basiri, Terry Moore, Jihye Park, Lukasz Bonenberg

Abstract: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is the most commonly used positioning technology for many Location Based Services (LBS) including navigation. However, GNSS applications are limited to outdoors as GNSS signals can get blocked and attenuated inside or between buildings, making positioning unreliable, inaccurate or impossible. Blockage of GNSS signals may result in the lack of availability of the minimum of four satellites in-view at each epoch, for a single constellation GNSS positioning, and consequently, lead to a failure in the continuity of the positioning service. This is a particularly common issue in urban canyon and indoors. This paper proposes and implements a framework to handle this challenge by virtually distribute the antenna in space and time and accumulate the measurements while adding some unknowns to solve the synchronization and the position solution. To test the proposed technique, Virtual Spatial Diversity Antenna (VSDA), raw GNSS measurements are captured using an Android 7.1.1. running smartphone over the period of forty-seven minutes. Then the observations are accumulated until the number of measurements outcounts the number of unknown, i.e. three position components plus the number of epochs. The results of the GPS-only measurements for a relatively limited period of 47 minutes, where satellite geometry may not significantly change, prove the feasibility of solving position solution in presence of fewer than four satellites at each epoch using VSDA scheme, and achieving the horizontal and vertical accuracy of 47.16 m and 68.45m, respectively.
Published in: Proceedings of the 31st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2018)
September 24 - 28, 2018
Hyatt Regency Miami
Miami, Florida
Pages: 3186 - 3198
Cite this article: Tahami, Hoda, Basiri, Anahid, Moore, Terry, Park, Jihye, Bonenberg, Lukasz, "Virtual Spatial Diversity Antenna for GNSS Based Mobile Positioning in the Harsh Environments," Proceedings of the 31st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2018), Miami, Florida, September 2018, pp. 3186-3198. https://doi.org/10.33012/2018.15987
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