Performance Analysis of a Miniaturized Airborne GPS Receiver

Steven L. Patton, David L. Van Dusseldorp, and Redge G. Bartholomew

Abstract:	This paper presents an analysis of the performance capabilities of the Receiver 3M, a five channel miniaturized (less than 3/8 ATR) airborne GPS receiver produced by the Collins Avionics & Communications Division, Rockwell International. This analysis will include a presentation of objective test data captured during both stationary and dynamic testing, with and without host vehicle aiding and under both jammed and unjammed conditions. It will also include a comparison with data collected from a DOD standard RCVR3A undergoing identical dynamics under identical conditions: the goal being to establish that the miniature receiver’s performance capabilities in all ways meet or exceed those of the DOD standard RCVR3A. If the analysis is to be of any validity, it must be performed using tools that previously have been independently verilled: to ensure that data describing the receiver’s performance has not been corrupted by errors in the measuring devices. To measure the miniature receiver’s performance, the same measurement facility was used as for the evaluation of the DOD standard GPS receivers. An off-line system is used to produce truth data against which the receiver’s output data is compared. This system also produces the satellite and host vehicle aiding data corresponding to that truth data. The host vehicle and satellite data is then used in a Simulation, Evaluation, and Verification System (SEVS) lab to simulate host vehicle dynamics. The receiver’s output data is collected and used in a Post-Test Error Analysis system to make second by second comparisons between the truth data and the receiver’s data The simulated host vehicle dynamics must test the receiver’s performance across a continuum of velocity, acceleration, and jerk that ranges from benign to well beyond the performance limits of existing aircraft. Stationary and low to medium dynamic scenarios are played out to test steady state operation and operation under expected off-nominal conditions. At the other extreme, line-of-sight scenarios are played out in which at maximum velocity, acceleration, and jerk, the host vehicle’s diction of velocity is set along the vector to one of the satellites being tracked: this will determine the outer limits of the receiver’s tracking capabilities. Tests are then prepared using these scenarios to collect specific data and measure specific aspects of the receiver’s performance: position, velocity, and time accuracy; satellite acquisition performance (time-to-first-fix); satellite reacquisition performance; and tracking accuracy and reliability.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 4th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1991) September 11 - 13, 1991 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	413 - 422
Cite this article:	Patton, Steven L., Van Dusseldorp, David L., Bartholomew, Redge G., "Performance Analysis of a Miniaturized Airborne GPS Receiver," Proceedings of the 4th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1991), Albuquerque, NM, September 1991, pp. 413-422.
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