Sub-Meter Accurate UAV Navigation and Cycle Slip Detection with LTE Carrier Phase Measurements

Kimia Shamaei and Zaher M. Kassas

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	A method to obtain sub-meter level navigation accuracy with cellular long-term evolution (LTE) signals is developed. The proposed method utilizes an LTE software-defined receiver (SDR) mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which can produce carrier and code phase and Doppler frequency measurements from received LTE signals. Single difference measurements are used to remove the effect of the receiver’s clock bias. LTE eNodeBs’ clock biases are initialized using the known initial position of the UAV. The measurements are fused via an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to estimate the UAV’s position and integer ambiguities of the carrier phase single difference measurements. It is shown that since LTE signals have different carrier frequencies, conventional algorithms cannot be used to estimate the integer ambiguities. An algorithm to detect cycle slip is proposed, where the carrier phase measurements from the LTE eNodeB’s multiple antenna ports are used to detect cycle slip. Experimental results show a two-dimensional (2-D) position root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 81 cm between the LTE navigation solution and the one obtained by a global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receiver with real-time kinematic (RTK) coupled with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Finally, the sources of error that affect the navigation solution accuracy are discussed.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 32nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2019) September 16 - 20, 2019 Hyatt Regency Miami Miami, Florida
Pages:	2469 - 2479
Cite this article:	Shamaei, Kimia, Kassas, Zaher M., "Sub-Meter Accurate UAV Navigation and Cycle Slip Detection with LTE Carrier Phase Measurements," Proceedings of the 32nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2019), Miami, Florida, September 2019, pp. 2469-2479. https://doi.org/10.33012/2019.17051
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