A wavelet-extreme learning machine for low-cost INS/GPS navigation system in high-speed applications

The combined navigation system consisting of both global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) results in reliable, accurate, and continuous navigation capability when compared to either a GPS or an INS stand-alone system. To improve the overall performance of low-cost micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based INS/GPS by considering a high level of stochastic noise on low-cost MEMS-based inertial sensors, a highly complex problems with noisy real data, a high-speed vehicle, and GPS signal outage during our experiments, we suggest two approaches at different steps: (1) improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the inertial sensor measurements and attenuating high-frequency noise using the discrete wavelet transform technique before data fusion while preserving important information like the vehicle motion information and (2) enhancing the positioning accuracy and speed by an extreme learning machine (ELM) which has the characteristics of quick learning speed and impressive generalization performance. We present a single-hidden layer feedforward neural network which is employed to optimize the estimation accuracy and speed by minimizing the error, especially in the high-speed vehicle and real-time implementation applications. To validate the performance of our proposed method, the results are compared with an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and an extended Kalman filter (EKF) method. The achieved accuracies are discussed. The results suggest a promising and superior prospect for ELM in the field of positioning for low-cost MEMS-based inertial sensors in the absence of GPS signal, as it outperforms ANFIS and EKF by approximately 50 and 70%, respectively.     

Adaptive Kalman Filtering for INS/GPS

After reviewing the two main approaches of adaptive Kalman filtering, namely, innovation-based adaptive estimation (IAE) and multiple-model-based adaptive estimation (MMAE), the detailed development of an innovation-based adaptive Kalman filter for an integrated inertial navigation system/global positioning system (INS/GPS) is given. The developed adaptive Kalman filter is based on the maximum likelihood criterion for the proper choice of the filter weight and hence the filter gain factors. Results from two kinematic field tests in which the INS/GPS was compared to highly precise reference data are presented. Results show that the adaptive Kalman filter outperforms the conventional Kalman filter by tuning either the system noise variance–covariance (V–C) matrix `Q' or the update measurement noise V–C matrix `R' or both of them. Received: 14 September 1998 / Accepted: 21 December 1998     

Adaptive estimation of multiple fading factors in Kalman filter for navigation applications

Kalman filter is the most frequently used algorithm in navigation applications. A conventional Kalman filter (CKF) assumes that the statistics of the system noise are given. As long as the noise characteristics are correctly known, the filter will produce optimal estimates for system states. However, the system noise characteristics are not always exactly known, leading to degradation in filter performance. Under some extreme conditions, incorrectly specified system noise characteristics may even cause instability and divergence. Many researchers have proposed to introduce a fading factor into the Kalman filtering to keep the filter stable. Accordingly various adaptive Kalman filters are developed to estimate the fading factor. However, the estimation of multiple fading factors is a very complicated, and yet still open problem. A new approach to adaptive estimation of multiple fading factors in the Kalman filter for navigation applications is presented in this paper. The proposed approach is based on the assumption that, under optimal estimation conditions, the residuals of the Kalman filter are Gaussian white noises with a zero mean. The fading factors are computed and then applied to the predicted covariance matrix, along with the statistical evaluation of the filter residuals using a Chi-square test. The approach is tested using both GPS standalone and integrated GPS/INS navigation systems. The results show that the proposed approach can significantly improve the filter performance and has the ability to restrain the filtering divergence even when system noise attributes are inaccurate.     

Improved adaptive filter with application to relative navigation

An improved adaptive Kalman filter algorithm is presented to model error and process noise uncertainty. The adaptive algorithm for model error is obtained by using an upper bound for the state prediction covariance matrix. The process noise is estimated at each filter step by minimizing a criterion function, which was determined by measurement prediction. A recursive algorithm is provided for solving the criterion function. The proposed adaptive filter algorithm was successfully implemented in GPS relative navigation for spacecraft formation flying in high earth orbits with real orbit perturbations. Software simulation results indicated that the proposed adaptive filter performed better in robustness and accuracy compared with previous adaptive algorithms.     

Enhanced MEMS-IMU/odometer/GPS integration using mixture particle filter

Dead reckoning techniques such as inertial navigation and odometry are integrated with GPS to avoid interruption of navigation solutions due to lack of visible satellites. A common method to achieve a low-cost navigation solution for land vehicles is to use a MEMS-based inertial measurement unit (IMU) for integration with GPS. This integration is traditionally accomplished by means of a Kalman filter (KF). Due to the significant inherent errors of MEMS inertial sensors and their time-varying changes, which are difficult to model, severe position error growth happens during GPS outages. The positional accuracy provided by the KF is limited by its linearized models. A Particle filter (PF), being a nonlinear technique, can accommodate for arbitrary inertial sensor characteristics and motion dynamics. An enhanced version of the PF, called Mixture PF, is employed in this paper. It samples from both the prior importance density and the observation likelihood, leading to an improved performance. Furthermore, in order to enhance the performance of MEMS-based IMU/GPS integration during GPS outages, the use of pitch and roll calculated from the longitudinal and transversal accelerometers together with the odometer data as a measurement update is proposed in this paper. These updates aid the IMU and limit the positional error growth caused by two horizontal gyroscopes, which are a major source of error during GPS outages. The performance of the proposed method is examined on road trajectories, and results are compared to the three different KF-based solutions. The proposed Mixture PF with velocity, pitch, and roll updates outperformed all the other solutions and exhibited an average improvement of approximately 64% over KF with the same updates, about 85% over KF with velocity updates only, and around 95% over KF without any updates during GPS outages.     

Attitude estimation based on fusion of gyroscopes and single antenna GPS for small UAVs under the influence of vibration

An attitude estimation method is presented for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) powered by a piston engine which is the major source of vibration. Vibration of the engine significantly degrades the accuracy of the inertial measurement unit, especially for low-cost sensors that are based on micro electro-mechanical system. Therefore, a vibration model for a small UAV is proposed in order to examine the influence of vibration on attitude estimation with different sensors. The model is derived based on spectrum analysis with short-time Fourier transform. The vibration is compared with the drift of the gyroscope in order to examine the impact on attitude estimation. An attitude estimation method that fuses the gyroscopes and single antenna global positioning system (GPS) is proposed to mitigate the influence of engine vibration and gyroscope drift. The quaternion-based extended Kalman filter is implemented to fuse the sensors. This filter fuses the angular rates measured by the gyroscopes and the pseudo-attitude derived from the GPS velocity to estimate the attitude of the UAV. Simulations and experiment results indicate that the proposed method performs well both in short-term and long-term accuracy even though the gyroscopes are affected by drift and vibration noise, while the pseudo-attitude contains severe noise.     

Hybrid derivative-free extended Kalman filter for unknown lever arm estimation in tightly coupled DGPS/INS integration

Differential carrier phase observations from GPS (Global Positioning System) integrated with high-rate sensor measurements, such as those from an inertial navigation system (INS) or an inertial measurement unit (IMU), in a tightly coupled approach can guarantee continuous and precise geo-location information by bridging short outages in GPS and providing a solution even when less than four satellites are visible. However, to be efficient, the integration requires precise knowledge of the lever arm, i.e. the position vector of the GPS antenna relative to the IMU. A previously determined lever arm by direct measurement is not always available in real applications; therefore, an efficient automatic estimation method can be very useful. We propose a new hybrid derivative-free extended Kalman filter for the estimation of the unknown lever arm in tightly coupled GPS/INS integration. The new approach takes advantage of both the linear time propagation of the Kalman filter and the nonlinear measurement propagation of the derivative-free extended Kalman filter. Compared to the unscented Kalman filter, which in recent years is typically used as a superior alternative to the extended Kalman filter for nonlinear estimation, the virtue of the new Kalman filter is equal estimation accuracy at a significantly reduced computational burden. The performance of the new lever arm estimation method is assessed with simulated and real data. Simulations show that the proposed technique can estimate the unknown lever arm correctly provided that maneuvers with attitude changes are performed during initialization. Field test results confirm the effectiveness of the new method.     

基于小波降噪的IMU精对准性能分析

精对准性能是保障惯性导航精度必不可少的重要条件,论文总结了国内外精对准的研究现状,发现精对准一般是通过卡尔曼滤波和惯性传感器的小失准角线性误差方程实现;基于此,本文通过卡尔曼滤波及小波分析,对低、中、高三种不同性能的惯性传感器进行精对准性能分析,对比发现,高精度的惯性传感器有着较好的对准精度;而低精度的传感器,由于噪声偏差及非线性原因,对准精度较低,甚至出现滤波发散的情况.      

Use of a reduced IMU to aid a GPS receiver with adaptive tracking loops for land vehicle navigation

A reduced inertial measurement unit (IMU) consisting of only one vertical gyro and two horizontal accelerometers or three orthogonal accelerometers can be used in land vehicle navigation systems to reduce volume and cost. In this paper, a reduced IMU is integrated with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver whose phase lock loops (PLLs) are aided with the Doppler shift from the integrated system. This approach is called tight integration with loop aiding (TLA). With Doppler aiding, the noise bandwidth of the PLL loop filters can be narrowed more than in the GPS-only case, which results in improved noise suppression within the receiver. In this paper, first the formulae to calculate the PLL noise bandwidth in a TLA GPS/reduced IMU are derived and used to design an adaptive PLL loop filter. Using a series of vehicle tests, results show that the noise bandwidth calculation formulae are valid and the adaptive loop filter can improve the performance of the TLA GPS/reduced IMU in both navigation performance and PLL tracking ability.     

Performance of GPS and GPS/SINS navigation in the CE-5T1 skip re-entry mission

A CE-5T1 spacecraft completed a high-speed skip re-entry to the earth after a circumlunar flight on October 31, 2014. In addition to the strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), a lightweight GPS receiver with rapid acquisition was developed as a navigation sensor in the re-entry capsule. The GPS receiver effectively solved the poor accuracy problem of long-term navigation using only the SINS. In contrast to ground users and low-earth-orbit spacecraft, numerous factors, including high altitude and kinetic characteristics in high-speed skip re-entry, are important for GPS positioning feasibility and were presented in accordance with the flight data. GPS solutions started at nearly 4900 km orbital altitude during the phases of re-entry process. These solutions were combined by an inertial measurement unit in a loosely coupled integrated navigation method and SINS navigation initialization. A simplified GPS/SINS navigation filter for limited resources was effectively developed and implemented on board for spacecraft application. Flight data estimation analyses, including trajectory, attitude, position distribution of GPS satellite, and navigation accuracy, were presented. The estimated accuracy of position was better than 42 m, and the accuracy of velocity was better than 0.1 m/s.     

自适应渐消卡尔曼滤波及其在SINS初始对准中的应用

卡尔曼滤波常常被用于惯性导航系统初始对准算法,其使用前提是对系统状态进行建模,从而得到比较准确的系统噪声和观测噪声统计特性。在模型失配和观测噪声干扰的情况下,常规卡尔曼滤波会出现精度下降甚至发散,从而影响初始对准精度。针对这一问题,提出了一种新型渐消卡尔曼滤波算法,引入了多重渐消因子对预测误差协方差阵进行调整,设计了基于新息向量统计特性的滤波状态χ2检验条件,使渐消因子的引入时机更加合理,算法的自适应性得到增强。将改进的卡尔曼滤波算法应用到惯性导航系统的初始对准问题中,仿真试验和实测数据试验结果表明,与常规渐消因子滤波算法相比,新算法可以有效提高滤波精度及鲁棒性。     

顾及系统噪声和观测噪声的分级自适应信息滤波算法

高精度的载体动态导航与定位不仅需要对载体异常扰动和观测异常有良好控制,还需要对状态方程系统噪声及观测噪声的时变特性有准确认识和处理.首先针对包含系统噪声的动力学模型和包含时变观测噪声的导航系统,提出一种基于信息滤波形式的分级自适应滤波算法.然后针对系统噪声的渐变性和突变性,增加了遗忘因子和二段自适应因子,提高了对突变噪...     

GPS navigation processing using the quaternion-based divided difference filter

Divided difference filter (DDF) with quaternion-based dynamic process modeling is applied to global positioning system (GPS) navigation. Using techniques similar to those of the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), the DDF uses divided difference approximations of derivatives based on Stirling’s interpolation formula which results in a similar mean but different posterior covariance compared to the extended Kalman filter (EKF) solutions. The second-order divided difference is obtained from the mean and covariance in second-order polynomial approximation. The quaternion-based dynamic model is adopted for avoiding the singularity problems encountered in the Euler angle method and enhancing the computational efficiency. The proposed method is applied to GPS navigation to increase the navigation estimation accuracy at high-dynamic regions while preserving (without sacrificing) the precision at low-dynamic regions. For the illustrated example, the second-order DDF can deliver about 41–82% accuracy improvement as compared to the EKF. Some properties and performance are assessed and compared to those of the EKF and UKF approaches.     

组合导航中一种新息自适应卡尔曼滤波算法

全球定位系统/航位推算组合导航定位中,由于目标运动的不确定性,GPS接收机与DR器件接收的数据存在噪声,使预置目标运动模型通常很难得到较高跟踪精度,针对应用常规卡尔曼滤波进行组合导航解算由于噪声统计特性未知而引起滤波不稳定的问题,本文提出了一种基于新息序列的量测计算进行自适应估计的卡尔曼滤波算法。该算法通过对新息方差强度进行极大似然估计,将新息计算引入卡尔曼滤波器的增益计算,达到控制发散的目的。最后对改进的算法与一般卡尔曼滤波算法做了对比仿真试验分析,结果表明了改进算法的有效性。     

利用神经网络预测的GPS/SINS组合导航系统算法研究

提出了一种基于神经网络预测的GPS/SINS组合导航系统算法。GPS信号可用时,该算法分别将惯性传感器的输出以及卡尔曼滤波器的输出信息作为神经网络的输入及理想输出信息,并进行在线训练;当GPS信息失锁时,利用已经训练好的神经网络预测各导航参数误差,并校正SINS。地面静态实验与动态跑车实验结果证明了该方法的可行性与有效性。     

SDINS/GPS in-flight alignment using GPS carrier phase rate

The alignments of the strapdown inertial navigation system (SDINS) utilizing GPS carrier phase rate measurements is introduced. In this paper, a measurement model of GPS carrier phase rate under two antenna configurations is derived in order to be used for the SDINS alignment process. For in-flight alignment, the performance of the proposed SDINS/GPS integration method is analyzed using the covariance analysis and the overall performance is briefly confirmed by the navigation result of a van test. Furthermore, we find that during in-flight alignment the proposed SDINS/GPS integrated system using GPS carrier phase rate measurements can be implemented in real time because the integer ambiguity problem resulting from carrier phase measurements is avoided.     

Using multiple portable/wearable devices for enhanced misalignment estimation in portable navigation

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS), such as global positioning system (GPS), has been widely used for vehicular and outdoor navigation. Accuracy is one, among many, of the advantages of using GNSS in the open sky. However, GNSS finds difficulty in achieving similar results in portable navigation, where users spend most of their time indoors or in urban canyons, places where GNSS signals suffer from multipath error or signal blockage. One of the most common solutions for providing location services in such challenging environments is integrating GNSS with inertial sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes. However, the arbitrary orientation of the portable device can present a more difficult challenge when using inertial sensors for portable navigation. In order to obtain a navigation solution using inertial sensors, an accurate heading estimation is required. Resolving the heading misalignment angle between the portable navigation device and the moving platform, such as using the device while walking or in a vehicle while driving, is critical to obtaining an accurate heading estimation. We present a solution for resolving the misalignment between the portable device and the moving platform, which exploits multiple portable devices like smartphones or tablets and/or smart wearable devices such as smart watches, smart glasses, and/or smart fitness and activity trackers/monitors. Several real field test experiments using portable devices were conducted to examine the performance of the proposed method. Results show how a portable navigation solution can be improved by further enhancing misalignment estimation.     

函数模型误差弹性自适应滤波修正

多源导航信息融合过程中,观测模型和动力学模型随时间和空间变化复杂,高精度的动态载体导航与定位需要观测模型和动力学模型具有准实时或实时修正的能力。针对包含观测模型误差以及动力学模型误差的滤波系统,提出了一种基于信息滤波的弹性自适应滤波算法。所提算法以不含模型误差的标准信息滤波器为主滤波器,分别构造了观测函数模型及动力学函数模型误差补偿滤波器,对两类模型误差进行补偿。所提方法强调模型补偿项的弹性自适应估计和状态参数的弹性组合,提高了时变模型误差估计的稳定性。半物理仿真实验结果表明,基于函数模型补偿的弹性自适应滤波算法可以有效地估计观测模型和载体动力学模型误差项,水下拖体的三维位置偏差在0.2 m以内,两类模型误差的影响基本消除,明显提高了载体动态参数的估计精度。     

Avoiding numerical stability problems of long duration DGPS/INS Kalman filters

A current pursuit of the geodetic community is the optimal integration of differential GPS (DGPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) data streams for precise and efficient position and gravity vector surveying. Therein a complete INS and multiple-antenna GPS receiver payload, mounted on a moving platform, is used in conjunction with a network of ground-fixed single antenna GPS receivers. This paper presents a complete, GPS-based, external updating measurement model for the applicable Kalman filter. The model utilizes four external observation types for every GPS satellite in-view: DGPS range differences, single phase differences, and single phase-rate differences; as well as the mobile, multipleantenna GPS receiver's measurement of theerrors in the INS's estimate of the phase difference between any two vehicle-borne GPS antennae. Although not widely conveyed in the geodetic world, the inertial navigation community has long known that traditional Kalman filter covariance propagation recurrences are inherently unstable when such highly accurate external updates are repeatedly applied (every 1 second) over long time durations. A hybrid square root covariance/U — D covariance factorization approach is a numerically stable alternative and is reviewed herein. The hybrid makeup of the algorithm is necessitated by the correlated nature of the fourth type of GPS external measurement listed above (each vehicle-borne GPS antenna formstwo baselines). Such measurement correlations require a functional transformation of the overall external updating model to permit the multiple updates (simultaneously available at each updating epoch) to be sequentially (and efficiently) processed. An appropriate transformation is given. Stable covariance propagation relationships are presented and the transformed Kalman gain is also furnished and its use in the determination of the externally updated error states is discussed. Specific DGPS/INS instabilities produced by the traditional recurrences are displayed. The stable alternative method requires about 25% more CPU time than the traditional Kalman recurrences. With the ever-increasing computational speeds of microprocessors, this added CPU time is of no real concern.