End-to-End Testing of an Integrated Centimetric Positioning Test-Bed

Terry Moore, Chris Hill, Sean Ince, Washington Ochieng, Shaojun Feng, Rigas Ionnides, Paul Cross and Lawrence Lau

Abstract:	SPACE (Seamless Positioning in All Conditions and Environments) is a collaborative project with the objective to support centimeter-level positioning everywhere, particularly in difficult environments. To achieve this goal, a number of different positioning technologies have to be integrated together including GNSS, INS, pseudolites and other technologies such as Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Bluetooth ranging. The integration of these sensors is achieved by the development a ‘plug and play’ filter that will optimally combine measurements from each sensor to form an accurate position solution. The SPACE project is investigating various factors which degrade positioning performance in difficult environments. A particular focus for the purposes of the research is the difficult environment in the shadow of a building, during the transition from outdoor GNSS-based positioning to indoor positioning based on other sensors. Techniques to mitigate the effects of multipath, at both the receiver measurement and data processing stages, to aid the integrity of the integrated solution, and to improve the performance of the GNSS receiver have all been addressed. This paper describes an end-to-end test of the SPACE concepts. A test-bed has been developed which allows for the different positioning technologies to be used simultaneously, and several trials have been conducted. To date the trials have concentrated on a test site which offers a suitable outdoor-indoor transition area, and which is straightforward to model for purposes such as multipath simulation. The testing addressed by the paper includes a GPS/INS integrated solution, migrating to a UWB/INS solution indoors. The paper describes the field trials themselves, the instruments that were carried on the test-bed during the trials, and some preliminary results from some of the sensors.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2007) September 25 - 28, 2007 Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth, TX
Pages:	1128 - 1138
Cite this article:	Moore, Terry, Hill, Chris, Ince, Sean, Ochieng, Washington, Feng, Shaojun, Ionnides, Rigas, Cross, Paul, Lau, Lawrence, "End-to-End Testing of an Integrated Centimetric Positioning Test-Bed," Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2007), Fort Worth, TX, September 2007, pp. 1128-1138.
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