Accurate Position and Attitude Determination in a Severe Multipath Environment Using an Uncalibrated Multi-Antenna-System

IEEE/ION Position Location and Navigation Symposium, pp. 1247–1255

Abstract

A novel proposal is made for the accurate determination of position and antenna attitude of a multi-antenna GNSS receiver in a multipath environment. In contrast to previous work no calibration of the gain and phase mismatches and crosstalk effects, that occur in the RF-Frontend, are necessary. This allows for the usage of heavily miniaturized RF-Frontends with highly integrated systems with non-negligible crosstalks and tolerances. The novel algorithm treats the estimation of antenna attitude, the multipath detection and mitigation as well as the calibration as a coupled problem and estimates the relevant unknowns in a joint procedure. Due to this approach a reliable position estimate can be determined even in challenging conditions without the need for very accurately calibrated - or nearly “ideal” hardware components.

Authors 4

1. Soeren Zorn Aachen Chair of Navigation

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Navigation, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

2. Michael Niestroj Aachen Chair of Navigation

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Navigation, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

3. Marius Brachvogel Aachen Chair of Navigation

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Navigation, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

4. Michael Meurer

   Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Communications and Navigation, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany