An Antenna Array-Based Approach to Attitude Determination in a Jammed Environment

Matthew Markel, Eric Sutton and Henry Zmuda

Abstract:	This paper develops the mathematical basis for a GPS based attitude determination (AD) system that performs even in the presence of strong external interference. Although GPS receivers provide some inherent tolerance to jamming, realistic jammer powers can corrupt or degrade the attitude measurements obtained from the standard phase differencing approach. To challenge this we present a generic adaptive antenna array and receiver design that provides the necessary data for both position location and attitude determination in a jammed environment. From the receiver data we develop two new estimators for the antenna attitude, both using the concepts of maximum likelihood estimation. Finally, simulation based performance results of the two estimators are presented for various antenna topologies and interference scenarios, showing that they offer a significant improvement over the conventional attitude determination methods.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2001) September 11 - 14, 2001 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	2914 - 2926
Cite this article:	Markel, Matthew, Sutton, Eric, Zmuda, Henry, "An Antenna Array-Based Approach to Attitude Determination in a Jammed Environment," Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2001), Salt Lake City, UT, September 2001, pp. 2914-2926.
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