Airborne photogrammetry and LIDAR for DSM extraction and 3D change detection over an urban area : a comparative study

A digital surface model (DSM) extracted from stereoscopic aerial images, acquired in March 2000, is compared with a DSM derived from airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data collected in July 2009. Three densely built-up study areas in the city centre of Ghent, Belgium, are selected, each covering approximately 0.4 km(2). The surface models, generated from the two different 3D acquisition methods, are compared qualitatively and quantitatively as to what extent they are suitable in modelling an urban environment, in particular for the 3D reconstruction of buildings. Then the data sets, which are acquired at two different epochs t(1) and t(2), are investigated as to what extent 3D (building) changes can be detected and modelled over the time interval. A difference model, generated by pixel-wise subtracting of both DSMs, indicates changes in elevation. Filters are proposed to differentiate 'real' building changes from false alarms provoked by model noise, outliers, vegetation, etc. A final 3D building change model maps all destructed and newly constructed buildings within the time interval t(2) - t(1). Based on the change model, the surface and volume of the building changes can be quantified

Passive detection of moving aerial target based on multiple collaborative GPS satellites

Passive localization is an important part of intelligent surveillance in security and emergency applications. Nowadays, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) have been widely deployed. As a result, the satellite signal receiver may receive multiple GPS signals simultaneously, incurring echo signal detection failure. Therefore, in this paper, a passive method leveraging signals from multiple GPS satellites is proposed for moving aerial target detection. In passive detection, the first challenge is the interference caused by multiple GPS signals transmitted upon the same spectrum resources. To address this issue, successive interference cancellation (SIC) is utilized to separate and reconstruct multiple GPS signals on the reference channel. Moreover, on the monitoring channel, direct wave and multi-path interference are eliminated by extensive cancellation algorithm (ECA). After interference from multiple GPS signals is suppressed, the cycle cross ambiguity function (CCAF) of the signal on the monitoring channel is calculated and coordinate transformation method is adopted to map multiple groups of different time delay-Doppler spectrum into the distance−velocity spectrum. The detection statistics are calculated by the superposition of multiple groups of distance-velocity spectrum. Finally, the echo signal is detected based on a properly defined adaptive detection threshold. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. They show that the detection probability of our proposed method can reach 99%, when the echo signal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is only −64 dB. Moreover, our proposed method can achieve 5 dB improvement over the detection method using a single GPS satellite

Analysis of Multipath Mitigation Techniques with Land Mobile Satellite Channel Model

Multipath is undesirable for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, since the reception of multipath can create a significant distortion to the shape of the correlation function leading to an error in the receivers’ position estimate. Many multipath mitigation techniques exist in the literature to deal with the multipath propagation problem in the context of GNSS. The multipath studies in the literature are often based on optimistic assumptions, for example, assuming a static two-path channel or a fading channel with a Rayleigh or a Nakagami distribution. But, in reality, there are a lot of channel modeling issues, for example, satellite-to-user geometry, variable number of paths, variable path delays and gains, Non Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) path condition, receiver movements, etc. that are kept out of consideration when analyzing the performance of these techniques. Therefore, this is of utmost importance to analyze the performance of different multipath mitigation techniques in some realistic measurement-based channel models, for example, the Land Multipath is undesirable for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, since the reception of multipath can create a significant distortion to the shape of the correlation function leading to an error in the receivers’ position estimate. Many multipath mitigation techniques exist in the literature to deal with the multipath propagation problem in the context of GNSS. The multipath studies in the literature are often based on optimistic assumptions, for example, assuming a static two-path channel or a fading channel with a Rayleigh or a Nakagami distribution. But, in reality, there are a lot of channel modeling issues, for example, satellite-to-user geometry, variable number of paths, variable path delays and gains, Non Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) path condition, receiver movements, etc. that are kept out of consideration when analyzing the performance of these techniques. Therefore, this is of utmost importance to analyze the performance of different multipath mitigation techniques in some realistic measurement-based channel models, for example, the Land Mobile Satellite (LMS) channel model [1]-[4], developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The DLR LMS channel model is widely used for simulating the positioning accuracy of mobile satellite navigation receivers in urban outdoor scenarios. The main objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive analysis of some of the most promising techniques with the DLR LMS channel model in varying multipath scenarios. Four multipath mitigation techniques are chosen herein for performance comparison, namely, the narrow Early-Minus-Late (nEML), the High Resolution Correlator, the C/N0-based two stage delay tracking technique, and the Reduced Search Space Maximum Likelihood (RSSML) delay estimator. The first two techniques are the most popular and traditional ones used in nowadays GNSS receivers, whereas the later two techniques are comparatively new and are advanced techniques, recently proposed by the authors. In addition, the implementation of the RSSML is optimized here for a narrow-bandwidth receiver configuration in the sense that it now requires a significantly less number of correlators and memory than its original implementation. The simulation results show that the reduced-complexity RSSML achieves the best multipath mitigation performance in moderate-to-good carrier-to-noise density ratio with the DLR LMS channel model in varying multipath scenarios

GPS Multipath Detection in the Frequency Domain

Multipath is among the major sources of errors in precise positioning using GPS and continues to be extensively studied. Two Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based detectors are presented in this paper as GPS multipath detection techniques. The detectors are formulated as binary hypothesis tests under the assumption that the multipath exists for a sufficient time frame that allows its detection based on the quadrature arm of the coherent Early-minus-Late discriminator (Q EmL) for a scalar tracking loop (STL) or on the quadrature (Q EmL) and/or in-phase arm (I EmL) for a vector tracking loop (VTL), using an observation window of N samples. Performance analysis of the suggested detectors is done on multipath signal data acquired from the multipath environment simulator developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) as well as on multipath data from real GPS signals. Application of the detection tests to correlator outputs of scalar and vector tracking loops shows that they may be used to exclude multipath contaminated satellites from the navigation solution. These detection techniques can be extended to other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou.Comment: 2016 European Navigation Conference (ENC 2016), May 2016, Helsinki, Finland. Proceedings of the 2016 European Navigation Conference (ENC 2016

Considerations for Future IGS Receivers

Future IGS receivers are considered against the backdrop of GNSS signal modernization and the IGS’s goal of further improving the accuracy of its products. The purpose of this paper is to provide IGS members with a guide to making decisions about GNSS receivers. Modernized GNSS signals are analyzed with a view toward IGS applications. A schedule for minimum IGS receiver requirements is proposed. Features of idealized conceptual receivers are discussed. The prospects for standard commercial receivers and for software-defined GNSS receivers are examined. Recommendations are given for how the IGS should proceed in order to maximally benefit from the transformation in GNSS that will occur over the next decade.Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanic