Phase center modeling for LEO GPS receiver antennas and its impact on precise orbit determination

Most satellites in a low-Earth orbit (LEO) with demanding requirements on precise orbit determination (POD) are equipped with on-board receivers to collect the observations from Global Navigation Satellite systems (GNSS), such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). Limiting factors for LEO POD are nowadays mainly encountered with the modeling of the carrier phase observations, where a precise knowledge of the phase center location of the GNSS antennas is a prerequisite for high-precision orbit analyses. Since 5 November 2006 (GPS week 1400), absolute instead of relative values for the phase center location of GNSS receiver and transmitter antennas are adopted in the processing standards of the International GNSS Service (IGS). The absolute phase center modeling is based on robot calibrations for a number of terrestrial receiver antennas, whereas compatible antenna models were subsequently derived for the remaining terrestrial receiver antennas by conversion (from relative corrections), and for the GNSS transmitter antennas by estimation. However, consistent receiver antenna models for space missions such as GRACE and TerraSAR-X, which are equipped with non-geodetic receiver antennas, are only available since a short time from robot calibrations. We use GPS data of the aforementioned LEOs of the year 2007 together with the absolute antenna modeling to assess the presently achieved accuracy from state-of-the-art reduced-dynamic LEO POD strategies for absolute and relative navigation. Near-field multipath and cross-talk with active GPS occultation antennas turn out to be important and significant sources for systematic carrier phase measurement errors that are encountered in the actual spacecraft environments. We assess different methodologies for the in-flight determination of empirical phase pattern corrections for LEO receiver antennas and discuss their impact on POD. By means of independent K-band measurements, we show that zero-difference GRACE orbits can be significantly improved from about 10 to 6 mm K-band standard deviation when taking empirical phase corrections into account, and assess the impact of the corrections on precise baseline estimates and further applications such as gravity field recovery from kinematic LEO positions.     

A constrained LAMBDA method for GPS attitude determination

An improved method to obtain fixed integer ambiguity in GPS attitude determination is presented. Known conditions are utilized as constraints to acquire attitude information when the float solution and its variance–covariance matrix are not accurate enough. The searching ellipsoidal region is first expanded to compensate for errors caused by the inaccurate float solution. Then the constraints are used to shrink the region to a proper size, which maintains the true integer ambiguity. Experimental results demonstrate that this scheme gives a fast search time and a higher success rate in determining the fixed integer ambiguity than the unconstrained method. The accuracy of attitude angles is also improved.

Modeling GPS satellite attitude variation for precise orbit determination

High precision geodetic applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS) require highly precise ephemerides of the GPS satellites. An accurate model for the non-gravitational forces on the GPS satellites is a key to high quality GPS orbit determination, especially in long arcs. In this paper the effect of the satellite solar panel orientation error is investigated. These effects are approximated by empirical functions to model the satellite attitude variation in long arc orbit fit. Experiments show that major part of the long arc GPS orbit errors can be accommodated by introducing a periodic variation of the satellite solar panel orientation with respect to the satellite-Sun direction, the desired direction for solar panel normal vector, with an amplitude of about 1 degree and with a frequency of once per orbit revolution.     

Low multipath antennas for GNSS-based attitude determination systems applied to high-altitude platforms

High-altitude platforms (HAPs) are a flexible and attractive technology for providing innovative wireless services. These aerial platforms can be successfully employed for mobile or broadband communications and for disaster monitoring or response. However, one of the open issues is whether HAP stations can provide reliable services without temporal outages owing to stratospheric winds that can cause positional and attitude instabilities thus affecting the communication system operation. To counteract this issue, one possible solution is to use reconfigurable antennas whose pointing direction can be adjusted depending on the platform spatial orientation. However, this would require real-time three-axial attitude data. As a possible solution, this paper will review the potential of GNSS-based attitude determination systems with reference to HAP stations. In particular, it will be shown how the use of a particular class of low multipath and lightweight antennas can provide a high degree of accuracy without altering the avionic ballast.     

Real-time kinematic positioning of LEO satellites using a single-frequency GPS receiver

Due to their low cost and low power consumption, single-frequency GPS receivers are considered suitable for low-cost space applications such as small satellite missions. Recently, requirements have emerged for real-time accurate orbit determination at sub-meter level in order to carry out onboard geocoding of high-resolution imagery, open-loop operation of altimeters and radio occultation. This study proposes an improved real-time kinematic positioning method for LEO satellites using single-frequency receivers. The C/A code and L1 phase are combined to eliminate ionospheric effects. The epoch-differenced carrier phase measurements are utilized to acquire receiver position changes which are further used to smooth the absolute positions. A kinematic Kalman filter is developed to implement kinematic orbit determination. Actual flight data from China’s small satellite SJ-9A are used to test the navigation performance. Results show that the proposed method outperforms traditional kinematic positioning method in terms of accuracy. A 3D position accuracy of 0.72 and 0.79 m has been achieved using the predicted portion of IGS ultra-rapid products and broadcast ephemerides, respectively.     

A MATLAB toolbox for attitude determination with GPS multi-antenna systems

In this paper a MATLAB toolbox for determining the attitude of a rigid platform by means of multiple non-dedicated antennas using global positioning system is presented. The programs embedded in this toolbox cover the RINEX data analysis, single point positioning, differential positioning, coordinate conversion, attitude determination, and other auxiliary functions. After forming the baselines through double-differenced (carrier phase smoothed) code observables, the attitude parameters are obtained by applying the direct attitude computation and the least squares attitude estimation. The theoretical background is summarized, and some hints regarding the software implementation are given in the paper. Moreover, improvements yielding an expanded functionality are proposed.

New method for single epoch, single frequency land vehicle attitude determination using low-end GPS receiver

Stand-alone, unaided, single frequency, single epoch attitude determination is the most challenging case of GNSS compass processing. For land vehicle applications, the baseline approximately lies in the plane of the local geodetic horizon. This provides an important constraint that can be exploited to directly aid the ambiguity resolution process. We fully integrate the constraint into the observation equations, which are transformed orthogonally. Our method can acquire the high-quality float solution by means of a heading search strategy. The fixed solution is obtained by weighted constrained integer least squares for each possible heading. The correct solution is identified by three consecutive steps: Kolmogorov?CSmirnov test, heading verification, and global minimizer of the fixed ambiguity objective function. The analysis focuses on single frequency, single epoch land vehicle attitude determination using low-end GPS receivers with very low precision of carrier phase and code measurements. The error analysis is given for choosing a proper baseline length in practical application. Experimental results demonstrate that this scheme can improve the ambiguity success rate for very short baseline.     

一种GNSS双天线姿态确定及点位标定方法研究

针对难以通过全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)直接测量的目标点位动态标定问题,讨论了GNSS双天线姿态确定的方法,且对存在的由安装误差等因素引起的姿态不一致做了推导分析,提出了一种基于GNSS双天线的点位动态标定原理和试验验证方法,并对点位动态标定的精度进行了分析．通过飞行试验算例分析得出:该方法可实现优于3 cm的动态标定精度,为载体目标点位动态标定提供了一种新的解决方案．      

Design of a low-cost attitude determination GPS/INS integrated navigation system

Due to their complementary features of GPS and INS, the GPS/INS integrated navigation system is increasingly being used for a variety of commercial and military applications. An attitude determination GPS (ADGPS) receiver, with multiple antennas, can be more effectively integrated with a low-cost IMU since the receiver gives not only position and velocity data but also attitude data. This paper proposes a low-cost attitude determination GPS/INS integrated navigation system. The proposed navigation system comprises an ADGPS receiver, a navigation computer unit (NCU), and a low-cost commercial MEMS IMU. The navigation software includes a fault detection and isolation (FDI) algorithm for integrity. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed navigation system, two flight tests have been performed using a small aircraft. The first flight test confirmed the fundamental operation of the proposed navigation system and the effectiveness of the FDI algorithm. The second flight test evaluated the performance of the proposed navigation system and demonstrated the benefit of GPS attitude information in a high dynamic environment. The flight test results show that the proposed ADGPS/INS integrated navigation unit gives reliable navigation performance even when anomalous GPS data is provided and gives better navigation performance than a conventional GPS/INS unit.     

星载BDS/GPS低轨卫星定轨精度分析

针对低轨卫星搭载BDS/GPS接收机实现定轨将成为定轨领域热点的现状,该文讨论了基于星载BDS/GPS实时定轨和精密定轨需要考虑的数学模型,阐述了实时定轨和精密定轨的模型差异。基于自主研发程序,利用高动态信号仿真器仿真的星载BDS/GPS数据研究了基于星载BDS/GPS实时定轨和精密定轨的可行性及其能达到的精度。试验结果表明,星载BDS/GPS实时定轨位置精度为1.19m,速度精度为2.35mm/s。GPS信号发生中断时即仅采用BDS观测数据进行实时定轨时,三维位置误差达到3.73m;星载BDS/GPS精密定轨位置精度为2.30cm,仅采用BDS观测数据进行精密定轨时,三维位置误差可达到8.26cm。     

以固定长度为条件提高GPS测姿精度的方法

本文在介绍GPS姿态测量技术原理的基础上,探讨了在近景目标三维测量系统中提高GPS测姿精度的新方法。该方法用固定长度为限制条件的条件平差解算姿态参数,并以实例验证了此方法在改善GPS测姿精度方面的有效性。     

Error analysis of satellite attitude determination using a vision-based approach

Improvements in communication and processing technologies have opened the doors to exploit on-board cameras to compute objects’ spatial attitude using only the visual information from sequences of remote sensed images. The strategies and the algorithmic approach used to extract such information affect the estimation accuracy of the three-axis orientation of the object.This work presents a method for analyzing the most relevant error sources, including numerical ones, possible drift effects and their influence on the overall accuracy, referring to vision-based approaches. The method in particular focuses on the analysis of the image registration algorithm, carried out through on-purpose simulations. The overall accuracy has been assessed on a challenging case study, for which accuracy represents the fundamental requirement. In particular, attitude determination has been analyzed for small satellites, by comparing theoretical findings to metric results from simulations on realistic ground-truth data. Significant laboratory experiments, using a numerical control unit, have further confirmed the outcome.We believe that our analysis approach, as well as our findings in terms of error characterization, can be useful at proof-of-concept design and planning levels, since they emphasize the main sources of error for visual based approaches employed for satellite attitude estimation. Nevertheless, the approach we present is also of general interest for all the affine applicative domains which require an accurate estimation of three-dimensional orientation parameters (i.e., robotics, airborne stabilization).     

Performance comparison of semicodeless GPS receivers for LEO satellites

This report provides a detailed performance analysis of three semicodeless dual-frequency GPS receivers for use in low Earth orbit (LEO). The test set comprises the IGOR receiver, which represents a follow-on of the flight-proven BlackJack receiver, as well as two geodetic receivers (NovAtel OEM4-G2 and Septentrio PolaRx2), which are entirely based on commercial-off-the-shelf technology (COTS). All three receivers are considered for upcoming flight projects or experiments and have undergone at least a preliminary environmental qualification program. Using extensive signal simulator tests, the cold start signal acquisition, tracking sensitivity, differential code biases, raw measurement accuracy, and navigation accuracy of each receiver have been assessed. All tests are based on a common scenario that is representative of an actual space mission and provides a realistic simulation of the signal dynamics and quality on a scientific LEO satellite. Compared to the other receivers, the IGOR instrument exhibits a superior tracking sensitivity and is thus best suited for occultation measurements with low tangent point altitudes. The OEM4-G2 and PolaRx2 receivers are likewise shown to properly track dual-frequency GPS signals and normal signal levels and to provide accurate code and carrier phase measurements. Given their limited resource requirements, these receivers appear well suited for precise orbit determination applications and ionospheric sounding onboard of microsatellites with tight mission budgets.     

强跟踪自适应SRCKF的卫星姿态确定算法

针对卫星星敏感器/陀螺姿态确定系统在空间中存在模型不确定性、状态突变和不良测量问题,该文提出了基于强跟踪自适应平方根容积卡尔曼滤波器(STSRCKF)的卫星姿态确定算法。在平方根容积卡尔曼滤波的基础上,通过引入渐消因子,解决了由于模型不确定和状态突变引起的精度下降、稳定性差和收敛慢的问题;通过增加异常检测和引入自适应因子,获得了应对不良测量的良好跟踪能力。通过仿真实验对算法进行了验证。     

四元数在GPS船姿测量中的应用

为了对船体姿态进行高精度检测,介绍了四元代数的基础知识和性质及其在GPS船姿测量中的应用,得到了一种更为便捷的解算方法,对保障舰艇武备性能的发挥具有一定实际作用.     

Precise GRACE baseline determination using GPS

Precision relative navigation is an essential aspect of spacecraft formation flying missions, both from an operational and a scientific point of view. When using GPS as a relative distance sensor, dual-frequency receivers are required for high accuracy at large inter-satellite separations. This allows for a correction of the relative ionospheric path delay and enables double difference integer ambiguity resolution. Although kinematic relative positioning techniques demonstrate promising results for hardware-in-the-loop simulations, they were found to lack an adequate robustness in real-world applications. To overcome this limitation, an extended Kalman Filter modeling the relative spacecraft dynamics has been developed. The filter processes single difference GPS pseudorange and carrier phase observations to estimate the relative position and velocity along with empirical accelerations and carrier phase ambiguities. In parallel, double difference carrier phase ambiguities are resolved on both frequencies using the least square ambiguity decorrelation adjustment (LAMBDA) method in order to fully exploit the inherent measurement accuracy. The combination of reduced dynamic filtering with the LAMBDA method results in smooth relative position estimates as well as fast and reliable ambiguity resolution. The proposed method has been validated with data from the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) mission. For an 11-day data arc, the resulting solution matches the GRACE K-Band Ranging System measurements with an accuracy of 1 mm, whereby 83% of the double difference ambiguities are resolved.     

Precise orbit determination for LEO satellites:single-receiver ambiguity resolution using GREAT products

In recent years, the large Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations have become a hot topic due to their great potential to improve the Global Navigation Satellite ...     

A new model for GPS yaw attitude

modeling of the GPS satellite yaw attitude is a key element in high-precision geophysical applications. This fact is illustrated here as a new model for the GPS satellite yaw attitude is introduced. The model constitutes a significant improvement over the previously available model in terms of efficiency, flexibility and portability. The model is described in detail and implementation issues, including the proper estimation strategy, are addressed. The performance of the new model is analyzed and an error budget is presented. Finally, the implementation of the yaw bias on the GPS satellites is reviewed from its inception until it reached a steady state in November, 1995.     

基于星载GPS的低轨卫星简化动力学定轨研究

利用GRACE卫星2015年1月1日至7日的星载GPS观测数据,基于卫星简化动力学定轨方法和事后批处理定轨模式,利用24小时弧段进行精密定轨。采用多种手段进行评价定轨精度,通过分析,观测值定轨残差稳定在7mm,与德国地学中心(GFZ)发布的事后精密轨道在径向、切向、法向的RMS值分别是3cm,2cm,3cm,利用SLR检核轨道精度优于4cm。结果表明,使用简化动力学定轨可实现低轨卫星的cm级高精度定轨。     

采用GPS精密单点定位技术实时确定舰船位置与姿态

文章采用静态模拟动态的手段,研究基于精密单点定位技术实时确定海上舰船位置和姿态的方法,并分析实时精密单点定位技术的定位定姿精度.研究表明:用精密单点定位技术进行实时动态定位,一般可获得2cm的平面定位精度和4cm左右的高程精度;在动态精密单点定位技术的定位精度一定的情况下,航向角的精度高于横滚角和俯仰角;真实动态观测值的随机误差比静态模拟的大,定位和定姿精度可能会有所降低.