Optimal Combination of Multi-Agent Smartphone GNSS Observations for Improved Collaborative Positioning in Urban Areas

Lucy Icking and Steffen Schön

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Positioning in urban areas, especially with smartphones, is still a challenging task as buildings in the vicinity of the receiver can obstruct the direct line-of-sight to the satellites. In recent years, collaborative positioning has become a way to effectively mitigate common errors. However, as the extra path delays in urban areas are very unique for each user, it is crucial to find partners that have similar extra path delays so that in a double-difference approach, the errors will be reduced. In this paper, two methods are compared to see how the choice of partners will affect the positioning solution. We show that when choosing a partner with a high spatial correlation of extra path delays and performing classical double difference relative positioning, the solution is similar to a method in which for each observation, a suitable observation from another agent is found. On the contrary, if the spatial correlation of extra path delays is low, obtaining the position through the double difference method causes systematic errors which can be slightly reduced if combining the observations separately.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2022) September 19 - 23, 2022 Hyatt Regency Denver Denver, Colorado
Pages:	2860 - 2870
Cite this article:	Icking, Lucy, Schön, Steffen, "Optimal Combination of Multi-Agent Smartphone GNSS Observations for Improved Collaborative Positioning in Urban Areas," Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2022), Denver, Colorado, September 2022, pp. 2860-2870. https://doi.org/10.33012/2022.18554
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