scholarly journals Precise Onboard Real-Time Orbit Determination with a Low-Cost Single-Frequency GPS/BDS Receiver

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1391
Author(s):  
Xuewen Gong ◽  
Lei Guo ◽  
Fuhong Wang ◽  
Wanwei Zhang ◽  
Jizhang Sang ◽  
...  

The low-cost single-frequency GNSS receiver is one of the most economical and affordable tools for the onboard real-time navigation of numerous remote sensing small/micro satellites. We concentrate on the algorithm and experiments of onboard real-time orbit determination (RTOD) based on a single-frequency GPS/BDS receiver. Through various experiments of processing the real single-frequency GPS/BDS measurements from the Yaogan-30 (YG30) series and FengYun-3C (FY3C) satellites of China, some critical aspects of the onboard RTOD are investigated, such as the optimal force models setting, the effect of different measurements, and the impact of GPS/BDS fusion. The results demonstrate that a gravity model truncated to 55 × 55 order/degree for YG30 and 45 × 45 for FY3C and compensated with an optimal stochastic modeling of empirical accelerations, which minimize the onboard computational load and only result in a slight loss of orbit accuracy, is sufficient to obtain high-precision real-time orbit results. Under the optimal force models, the real-time orbit accuracy of 0.4–0.7 m for position and 0.4–0.7 mm/s for velocity is achievable with the carrier-phase-based solution, while an inferior real-time orbit accuracy of 0.8–1.6 m for position and 0.9–1.7 mm/s for velocity is achieved with the pseudo-range-based solution. Furthermore, although the GPS/BDS fusion only makes little change to the orbit accuracy, it increases the number of visible GNSS satellites significantly, and thus enhances the geometric distribution of GNSS satellites that help suppress the local orbit errors and improves the reliability and availability of the onboard RTOD, especially in some anomalous arcs where only a few GPS satellites are trackable.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangkang Chen ◽  
Markus Rothacher ◽  
Lukas Müller ◽  
Flavio Kreiliger ◽  
Sergio De Florio

<p><span>Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have been used as a key technology for satellite orbit determination </span><span>for</span><span> about 30 years. With the increasing popularity of miniaturized satellites (e.g., CubeSats that are nanosatellites based on standardized 10 cm-sized units) the need for an adapted payload for orbit determination arises. We developed a small-size versatile GNSS payload board using commercial off-the-shelf single-frequency GNSS receivers with extremely small weight (</span><span>1.6</span><span> g), size (12</span><span>.2</span><span> x 16</span><span>.0</span><span> x 2</span><span>.4</span><span> mm</span><sup><span>3</span></sup><span>) and power consumption (100 mW). The board features two separate antenna connectors and four GNSS receivers – two connected to each antenna. This redundancy lowers the risk of a total payload failure in case one receiver is malfunctioning.</span></p><p><span>Two prototypes of the GNSS positioning board have been successfully launched onboard the Astrocast-01 and -02 3-unit cube satellites with altitudes of 575 and 505 km, respectively. The multi-GNSS receivers are capable of tracking the GNSS satellites of the four major systems, i.e., GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. In addition, both satellites are equipped with a small array of three laser retroreflectors enabling orbit validation with Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR). After the two precursor missions, a constellation of 80 satellites is planned, allowing the formation and computation of a highly uniform polyhedron in space with cm-accuracy, relevant for geocenter, reference frame, and GNSS orbit determination.</span></p><p> <span>At present, we have continuous receiver PVT solutions available. The real-time onboard orbit determination results indicate that the receivers perform very well on both satellites. The RMS of a daily orbit fitting is, after removing one or the other outlier, at the level of 2-5 meters despite errors caused by the ionosphere and the orbit model. For a few satellite arcs, the recording of GNSS raw phase and code data was enabled, allowing orbit determination in a post-processing mode. This allows a better assessment of the achievable orbit quality and an overall performance estimation. The tests performed so far include the improvement of the orbit quality by eliminating the ionospheric refraction based on a linear combination of phase and code observations, the comparison of various single-system solutions and advances in combining the different tracking systems for orbit determination. In collaboration with the Zimmerwald Observatory in Switzerland a first SLR campaign was conducted that successfully tracked both nanosatellites. The SLR measurements with their high accuracy were then analyzed to validate the orbits of the Astrocast satellites derived from GNSS measurements.</span></p><p><span>We will present details on the payload board, on the results of the orbit </span><span>determination in real-time and in post-processing mode based on the low-cost single-frequency multi-GNSS receivers onboard the satellites and on the SLR orbit validation.</span></p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> CubeSat; GNSS payload; LEO orbit determination; low-cost; ionospheric refraction; linear combination; SLR</p>


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4637
Author(s):  
Huixin Zong ◽  
Peter Brimblecombe ◽  
Li Sun ◽  
Peng Wei ◽  
Kin-Fai Ho ◽  
...  

Sensor technology has enabled the development of portable low-cost monitoring kits that might supplement many applications in conventional monitoring stations. Despite the sensitivity of electrochemical gas sensors to environmental change, they are increasingly important in monitoring polluted microenvironments. The performance of a compact diffusion-based Personal Exposure Kit (PEK) was assessed for real-time gaseous pollutant measurement (CO, O3, and NO2) under typical environmental conditions encountered in the subtropical city of Hong Kong. A dynamic baseline tracking method and a range of calibration protocols to address system performance were explored under practical scenarios to assess the performance of the PEK in reducing the impact of rapid changes in the ambient environment in personal exposure assessment applications. The results show that the accuracy and stability of the ppb level gas measurement is enhanced even in heterogeneous environments, thus avoiding the need for data post-processing with mathematical algorithms, such as multi-linear regression. This establishes the potential for use in personal exposure monitoring, which has been difficult in the past, and for reporting more accurate and reliable data in real-time to support personal exposure assessment and portable air quality monitoring applications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Hadas ◽  
Grzegorz Marut ◽  
Jan Kapłon ◽  
Witold Rohm

<p>The dynamics of water vapor distribution in the troposphere, measured with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), is a subject of weather research and climate studies. With GNSS, remote sensing of the troposphere in Europe is performed continuously and operationally under the E-GVAP (http://egvap.dmi.dk/) program with more than 2000 permanent stations. These data are one of the assimilation system component of mesoscale weather prediction models (10 km scale) for many nations across Europe. However, advancing precise local forecasts for severe weather requires high resolution models and observing system.   Further densification of the tracking network, e.g. in urban or mountain areas, will be costly when considering geodetic-grade equipment. However, the rapid development of GNSS-based applications results in a dynamic release of mass-market GNSS receivers. It has been demonstrated that post-processing of GPS-data from a dual-frequency low-cost receiver allows retrieving ZTD with high accuracy. Although low-cost receivers are a promising solution to the problem of densifying GNSS networks for water vapor monitoring, there are still some technological limitations and they require further development and calibration.</p><p>We have developed a low-cost GNSS station, dedicated to real-time GNSS meteorology, which provides GPS, GLONASS and Galileo dual-frequency observations either in RINEX v3.04 format or via RTCM v3.3 stream, with either Ethernet or GSM data transmission. The first two units are deployed in a close vicinity of permanent station WROC, which belongs to the International GNSS Service (IGS) network. Therefore, we compare results from real-time and near real-time processing of GNSS observations from a low-cost unit with IGS Final products. We also investigate the impact of replacing a standard patch antenna with an inexpensive survey-grade antenna. Finally, we deploy a local network of low-cost receivers in and around the city of Wroclaw, Poland, in order to analyze the dynamics of troposphere delay at a very high spatial resolution.</p><p>As a measure of accuracy, we use the standard deviation of ZTD differences between estimated ZTD and IGS Final product. For the near real-time mode, that accuracy is 5 mm and 6 mm, for single- (L1) and dual-frequency (L1/L5,E5b) solution, respectively. Lower accuracy of the dual-frequency relative solution we justify by the missing antenna phase center correction model for L5 and E5b frequencies. With the real-time Precise Point Positioning technique, we estimate ZTD with the accuracy of 7.5 – 8.6 mm. After antenna replacement, the accuracy is improved almost by a factor of 2 (to 4.1 mm), which is close to the 3.1 mm accuracy which we obtain in real-time using data from the WROC station.</p>


Measurement ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 110224
Author(s):  
Zhiyu Wang ◽  
Zishen Li ◽  
Liang Wang ◽  
Ningbo Wang ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 2815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingxing Li ◽  
Jiaqi Wu ◽  
Keke Zhang ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Yun Xiong ◽  
...  

The rapid growing number of earth observation missions and commercial low-earth-orbit (LEO) constellation plans have provided a strong motivation to get accurate LEO satellite position and velocity information in real time. This paper is devoted to improve the real-time kinematic LEO orbits through fixing the zero-differenced (ZD) ambiguities of onboard Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) phase observations. In the proposed method, the real-time uncalibrated phase delays (UPDs) are estimated epoch-by-epoch via a global-distributed network to support the ZD ambiguity resolution (AR) for LEO satellites. By separating the UPDs, the ambiguities of onboard ZD GPS phase measurements recover their integer nature. Then, wide-lane (WL) and narrow-lane (NL) AR are performed epoch-by-epoch and the real-time ambiguity–fixed orbits are thus obtained. To validate the proposed method, a real-time kinematic precise orbit determination (POD), for both Sentinel-3A and Swarm-A satellites, was carried out with ambiguity–fixed and ambiguity–float solutions, respectively. The ambiguity fixing results indicate that, for both Sentinel-3A and Swarm-A, over 90% ZD ambiguities could be properly fixed with the time to first fix (TTFF) around 25–30 min. For the assessment of LEO orbits, the differences with post-processed reduced dynamic orbits and satellite laser ranging (SLR) residuals are investigated. Compared with the ambiguity–float solution, the 3D orbit difference root mean square (RMS) values reduce from 7.15 to 5.23 cm for Sentinel-3A, and from 5.29 to 4.01 cm for Swarm-A with the help of ZD AR. The SLR residuals also show notable improvements for an ambiguity–fixed solution; the standard deviation values of Sentinel-3A and Swarm-A are 4.01 and 2.78 cm, with improvements of over 20% compared with the ambiguity–float solution. In addition, the phase residuals of ambiguity–fixed solution are 0.5–1.0 mm larger than those of the ambiguity–float solution; the possible reason is that the ambiguity fixing separate integer ambiguities from unmodeled errors used to be absorbed in float ambiguities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 3024
Author(s):  
Yang Liu ◽  
Yanxiong Liu ◽  
Ziwen Tian ◽  
Xiaolei Dai ◽  
Yun Qing ◽  
...  

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ultra-rapid precise orbits are crucial for global and wide-area real-time high-precision applications. The solar radiation pressure (SRP) model is an important factor in precise orbit determination. The real-time orbit determination is generally less accurate than the post-processed one and may amplify the instability and mismodeling of SRP models. Also, the impact of different SRP models on multi-GNSS real-time predicted orbits demands investigations. We analyzed the impact of the ECOM 1 and ECOM 2 models on multi-GNSS ultra-rapid orbit determination in terms of ambiguity resolution performance, real-time predicted orbit overlap precision, and satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation. The multi-GNSS observed orbital arc and predicted orbital arcs of 1, 3, 6, and 24 h are compared. The simulated real-time experiment shows that for GLONASS and Galileo ultra-rapid orbits, compared to ECOM 1, ECOM 2 increased the ambiguity fixing rate to 89.3% and 83.1%, respectively, and improves the predicted orbit accuracy by 9.2% and 27.7%, respectively. For GPS ultra-rapid orbits, ECOM 2 obtains a similar ambiguity fixing rate as ECOM 1 but slightly better orbit overlap precision. For BDS GEO ultra-rapid orbits, ECOM 2 obtains better overlap precision and SLR residuals, while for BDS IGSO and MEO ultra-rapid orbits, ECOM 1 obtains better orbit overlap precision and SLR residuals.


Author(s):  
Xiao Liang ◽  
Gonçalo Homem de Almeida Correia ◽  
Bart van Arem

This paper proposes a method of assigning trips to automated taxis (ATs) and designing the routes of those vehicles in an urban road network, and also considering the traffic congestion caused by this dynamic responsive service. The system is envisioned to provide a seamless door-to-door service within a city area for all passenger origins and destinations. An integer programming model is proposed to define the routing of the vehicles according to a profit maximization function, depending on the dynamic travel times, which varies with the ATs’ flow. This will be especially important when the number of automated vehicles (AVs) circulating on the roads is high enough that their routing will cause delays. This system should be able to serve not only the reserved travel requests, but also some real-time requests. A rolling horizon scheme is used to divide one day into several periods in which both the real-time and the booked demand will be considered together. The model was applied to the real size case study city of Delft, the Netherlands. The results allow assessing of the impact of the ATs movements on traffic congestion and the profitability of the system. From this case-study, it is possible to conclude that taking into account the effect of the vehicle flows on travel time leads to changes in the system profit, the satisfied percentage and the driving distance of the vehicles, which highlights the importance of this type of model in the assessment of the operational effects of ATs in the future.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1956
Author(s):  
Natalia Wielgocka ◽  
Tomasz Hadas ◽  
Adrian Kaczmarek ◽  
Grzegorz Marut

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have revolutionized land surveying, by determining position coordinates with centimeter-level accuracy in real-time or up to sub-millimeter accuracy in post-processing solutions. Although low-cost single-frequency receivers do not meet the accuracy requirements of many surveying applications, multi-frequency hardware is expected to overcome the major issues. Therefore, this paper is aimed at investigating the performance of a u-blox ZED-F9P receiver, connected to a u-blox ANN-MB-00-00 antenna, during multiple field experiments. Satisfactory signal acquisition was noticed but it resulted as >7 dB Hz weaker than with a geodetic-grade receiver, especially for low-elevation mask signals. In the static mode, the ambiguity fixing rate reaches 80%, and a horizontal accuracy of few centimeters was achieved during an hour-long session. Similar accuracy was achieved with the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) if a session is extended to at least 2.5 h. Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) and Network RTK measurements achieved a horizontal accuracy better than 5 cm and a sub-decimeter vertical accuracy. If a base station constituted by a low-cost receiver is used, the horizontal accuracy degrades by a factor of two and such a setup may lead to an inaccurate height determination under dynamic surveying conditions, e.g., rotating antenna of the mobile receiver.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavinia Tunini ◽  
David Zuliani ◽  
Paolo Fabris ◽  
Marco Severin

<p>The Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) provide a globally extended dataset of primordial importance for a wide range of applications, such as crustal deformation, topographic measurements, or near surface processes studies. However, the high costs of GNSS receivers and the supporting software can represent a strong limitation for the applicability to landslide monitoring. Low-cost tools and techniques are strongly required to face the plausible risk of losing the equipment during a landslide event.</p><p>Centro di Ricerche Sismologiche (CRS) of Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale OGS in collaboration with SoluTOP, in the last years, has developed a cost-effective GNSS device, called LZER0, both for post-processing and real-time applications. The aim is to satisfy the needs of both scientific and professional communities which require low-cost equipment to increase and improve the measurements on structures at risk, such as landslides or buildings, without losing precision.</p><p>The landslide monitoring system implements single-frequency GNSS devices and open source software packages for GNSS positioning, dialoguing through Linux shell scripts. Furthermore a front-end web page has been developed to show real-time tracks. The system allows measuring real-time surface displacements with a centimetre precision and with a cost ten times minor than a standard RTK GPS operational system.</p><p>This monitoring system has been tested and now applied to two landslides in NE- Italy: one near Tolmezzo municipality and one near Brugnera village. Part of the device development has been included inside the project CLARA 'CLoud plAtform and smart underground imaging for natural Risk Assessment' funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).</p>


MRS Advances ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 811-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Grånäs ◽  
Grigory Kolesov ◽  
Efthimios Kaxiras

ABSTRACTElectron transfer in molecular wires are of fundamental importance for a range of optoelectronic applications. The impact of electronic coherence and ionic vibrations on transmittance are of great importance to determine the mechanisms, and subsequently the type of wires that are most promising for applications. In this work, we use the real-time formulation of time-dependent density functional theory to study electron transfer through oligo-p-phenylenevinylene (OPV) and the recently synthesized carbon bridged counterpart (COPV). A system prototypical of organic photovoltaics is setup by bridging a porphyrin-fullerene dyad, allowing a photo-excited electron to flow between the Zn-porphyrin (ZnP) chromophore and the C60 electron acceptor through the molecular wire. The excited state is described using the fully self-consistent ∆-SCF method. The state is then propagated in time using the real-time TD-DFT scheme, while describing ionic vibrations with classical nuclei. The charge transferred between porphyrin and C60 is calculated and correlated with the velocity autocorrelation functions of the ions. This provides a microscopic insight to vibrational and tunneling contributions to electron transport in linked porphyrin-fullerene dyads. We elaborate on important details in describing the excited state and trajectory sampling.


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