Advanced receiver autonomous integrity monitoring using triple frequency data with a focus on treatment of biases

Most current Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) methods are designed to use dual-frequency ionosphere-free observations. These methods assume that receiver bias is absorbed in the common receiver clock offset and bound satellite biases by nominal values. However, most multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can offer triple frequency data that can be used for civilian applications in the future, which can improve observation redundancy, solution precision and detection of faults. In this contribution, we explore the use of this type of observations from GPS, Galileo and BeiDou in ARAIM. Nevertheless, the use of triple frequency data introduces receiver differential biases that have to be taken into consideration. To demonstrate the significance of these additional biases we first present a method to quantify them at stations of known coordinates and using available products from the International GNSS service (IGS). To deal with the additional receiver biases, we use a between-satellite single difference (BSSD) observation model that eliminates their effect. A pilot test was performed to evaluate ARAIM availability for Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance down to 200. feet (LPV-200) when using the triple-frequency observations. Real data were collected for one month at stations of known coordinates located in regions of different satellite coverage characteristics. The BSSD triple-frequency model was evaluated to give early indication about its feasibility, where the implementation phase still requires further comprehensive studies. The vertical position error was always found to be bounded by the protection level proven initial validity of the proposed integrity model. © 2017 COSPAR

An Integrity Framework for Image-Based Navigation Systems

This work first examines fundamental differences between measurement models established for GPS and those of proposed image-based navigation systems. In contrast to single value per satellite GPS pseudorange measurements, image measurements are inherently angle-based and represent pixel coordinate pairs for each mapped target. Thus, in the image-based case, special consideration must be given to the units of the transformations between the states and measurements, and also to the fact that multiple rows of the observation matrix relate to particular error states. An algorithm is developed to instantiate a framework for image-based integrity analogous to that of GPS RAIM. The algorithm is applied cases where the navigation system is estimating position only and then extended to cases where both position and attitude estimation is required. Detailed analysis demonstrates the impact of angular error on a single pixel pair measurement and comparisons from both estimation scenario results show that, from an integrity perspective, there is significant benefit in having known attitude information. Additional work demonstrates the impact of pixel pair measurement relative geometries on system integrity, showing potential improvement in image-based integrity through screening and adding measurements, when available, to the navigation system solution

Performance of Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) for Maritime Operations

The use of GNSS in the context of maritime applications has evolved during the past. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has defined and published requirements for those applications. Comparing the requirements on the one hand specified by ICAO and on the other hand by IMO, significant differences get obvious. A major focus is on the evaluation of the performance of the integrity algorithms. Also concept drivers are discussed

Safety-quantifiable Line Feature-based Monocular Visual Localization with 3D Prior Map

Accurate and safety-quantifiable localization is of great significance for safety-critical autonomous systems, such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The visual odometry-based method can provide accurate positioning in a short period but is subjected to drift over time. Moreover, the quantification of the safety of the localization solution (the error is bounded by a certain value) is still a challenge. To fill the gaps, this paper proposes a safety-quantifiable line feature-based visual localization method with a prior map. The visual-inertial odometry provides a high-frequency local pose estimation which serves as the initial guess for the visual localization. By obtaining a visual line feature pair association, a foot point-based constraint is proposed to construct the cost function between the 2D lines extracted from the real-time image and the 3D lines extracted from the high-precision prior 3D point cloud map. Moreover, a global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) inspired method is employed to quantify the safety of the derived localization solution. Among that, an outlier rejection (also well-known as fault detection and exclusion) strategy is employed via the weighted sum of squares residual with a Chi-squared probability distribution. A protection level (PL) scheme considering multiple outliers is derived and utilized to quantify the potential error bound of the localization solution in both position and rotation domains. The effectiveness of the proposed safety-quantifiable localization system is verified using the datasets collected in the UAV indoor and UGV outdoor environments

Etude de la Performance du Contrôle Autonome d'Intégrité pour les Approches à Guidage Vertical

L'Organisation de l'Aviation Civile Internationale (OACI) a reconnu la navigation par satellite, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), comme un élément clé des systèmes CNS/ATM (Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance / Air Traffic Management) et comme une base sur laquelle les Etats peuvent s'appuyer afin de délivrer des services de navigation aérienne performants. Mais l'utilisation des systèmes de navigation par satellites pour des applications de type aviation civile ne va pas sans répondre à des exigences en terme de précision, de continuité, d'intégrité et de disponibilité. Ces exigences opérationnelles liées aux différentes phases de vol requièrent pour les systèmes GNSS l'appui de moyens d'augmentation tels ceux utilisant des stations de surveillance sol pour vérifier la validité des signaux satellitaires et calculer des corrections ou ceux fonctionnant de manière autonome, tel le RAIM (Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring). Ce dernier moyen est particulièrement intéressant car il engendre des coûts de mise en oeuvre réduits et il constitue à l'heure actuelle un moyen simple et efficace d'effectuer des approches de non précision. La prochaine mise en place du système de navigation européen Galileo ainsi que la modernisation du système historique américain GPS vont entrainer une nette amélioration, à la fois en terme de nombre et de qualité, des mesures satellitaires disponibles, laissant entrevoir la possible utilisation du RAIM pour des approches à guidage vertical, très intéressantes du point de vue opérationnel. Les différentes notions liées aux exigences de l'aviation civile sont définies dans le chapitre 2, notamment les différents critères de performance. Chaque phase de vol, et plus particulièrement chaque catégorie d'approche, y est également décrite ainsi que les niveaux de performance associés. Plusieurs types d'erreurs sont susceptibles d'affecter les mesures GNSS. Parmi elles il convient de distinguer les erreurs systématiques ou nominales des perturbations liées à une défaillance du système de navigation. Ces dernières peuvent être dues soit à un problème matériel survenant au niveau d'un des satellites ou du récepteur, soit d'une perturbation de l'environnement de propagation des signaux GNSS. Ces aspects sont adressés dans le chapitre 3 à l'issu duquel un modèle complet de mesure de pseudo distance GNSS est proposé. Les algorithmes de contrôle d'intégrité ont été développés pour détecter ces anomalies et exclure les mesures erronées de la solution de navigation. Il s'agit de méthodes uniquement basées sur la redondance des mesures satellite, éventuellement enrichies de celles d'autres capteurs, devant déterminer si les conditions sont réunies pour occasionner une erreur de position dépassant une limite spécifiée. Devant répondre à des exigences relatives aux performances décrites dans le chapitre 2, le choix du type d'algorithme de contrôle d'intégrité est laissé à l'utilisateur. Le chapitre 4 étudie plusieurs de ces méthodes et propose des innovations.l'algorithme de surveillance doivent être réexaminées. En effet, elles pourraient avoir une plus petite amplitude et des taux d'occurrence qui ne sont pas clairement définie pour le moment. C'est dans ce contexte que la Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile a initié cette thèse dont l'objectif est d'évaluer le potentiel des algorithmes RAIM pour les approches à guidage vertical. On tachera de savoir dans quelle mesure l'augmentation du nombre de satellites et de l'amélioration de qualité de mesures de pseudodistance pourraient elles permettre l'utilisation de RAIM les approches à guidage vertical. Cette thèse est organisée de la manière suivante. Tout d'abord, le chapitre 2 présente les exigences de l'aviation civile quant à l'utilisation du GNSS. Cette section inclut une description des différentes phases de vol et plus particulièrement des phases d'approche. Elle introduit les concepts RNAV et RNP et définit également les critères de performance requis par l'OACI pour chaque les phases de vol. Finalement, les termes de détectionet d'exclusion de faute, plus spécifiques au contrôle autonome d'intégrité, sont définis. Le chapitre 3 a pour objectif de donner un modèle complet des mesures GNSS en adressant aussi bien le mode nominal et le mode défectueux, en tenant compte des pannes satellite et de l'effet des interférences. Le chapitre 4 a pour but d'étudier differents algorithmes RAIM mais certains aspects généraux comme l'estimation de la position d'utilisateur ou le calcul du plus petit biais sur une mesure de pseudo distance entrainant une erreur de positionnement sont d'abord présentés. La manière dont les exigences aviation civile et le modèle d'erreur sont interprétés afin de constituer les paramètres d'entrée des algorithmes RAIM est discutée au chapitre 5. Le chapitre 6 présente des résultats des simulations qui ont été effectuées pour évaluer la performance RAIM pour les approches à guidage vertical. Cette évaluation a été réalisée grâce à des simulations Matlab. Finalement, le chapitre 7 résume les principaux résultats de ce travail de doctorat et propose quelques pistes de reflexion quant à de futurs travaux. ABSTRACT : The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recognized the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) as a key element of the Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance / Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems as well as a foundation upon which States can deliver improved aeronautical navigation services. But civil aviation requirements can be very stringent and up to now, the bare systems cannot alone be used as a means of navigation. Therefore, in order to ensure the levels required in terms of accuracy, integrity, continuity of service and availability, ICAO standards define different architectures to augment the basic constellations. Some of them use control stations to monitor satellite signals and provide corrections, others only use measurement redundancy. This study focuses on this last type of augmentation system and more particularly on Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) techniques and performance. RAIM is currently a simple and efficient solution to check the integrity of GNSS down to Non Precision Approaches. But the future introduction of new satellite constellations such as the European satellite navigation system Galileo or modernized Global Positioning System (GPS) will imply great improvements in the number as well as the quality of available measurements. Thus, more demanding phases of flight such as APproaches with Vertical guidance could be targeted using RAIM to provide integrity monitoring. This would result in some interesting safety, operational and environmental benefits. This Ph.D. evaluates the potential capacity of RAIM algorithms to support approach and landing phases of flight with vertical guidance. A thorough bibliographic study of civil aviation requirements is first presented; some candidate LPV200 signal in space performance requirements not yet included in the ICAO standards are also provided. To evaluate GNSS positioning performance, pseudorange measurements have to be modeled as precisely as possible and especially the different errors that affect them. The main sources of error are signal propagation delays caused by the ionosphere and the troposphere, space vehicle clock error, satellite position estimation error, multipath, receiver errors which main source is code tracking loop noise. Thus, these errors can be due to the space segment, the control segment or the user segment. Systematic errors are gathered in the fault free case measurement model; unusual errors, that may cause a dangerous positioning failure and that may have to be detected, are gathered in the faulty case measurement model. Finally, a complete model of pseudo range measurements, including interference effects and satellite failures, is given. A special attention is put on the User Equivalent Range Error (UERE) variance computation. Indeed, among all input parameters of RAIM availability simulator, UERE has, by far, the most significant impact on the estimated availability. Three distinct classes of RAIM algorithms are studied in this thesis. The Least Square Residual method in which the sum of the squares of the pseudorange residuals plays the rôle of the basic observable is first recalled. The Maximum Solution Separation method which is based on the observation of the separation between the position estimate generated by a fullset filter (using all the satellite measurements) and the position estimate generated by each one of the subset filters (each using all but one of the satellite measurements) is then discussed and an improved way of computing the associated protection level is proposed. Finally, a new promising method based on the Generalized Likelihood Ratio test is presented and several implementations are described. The way these different methods are implemented to take into account both civil aviation requirements and threat model is then detailed. In particular some methods to obtain the inner probability values that RAIM algorithms need to use are presented. Indeed, high level requirements interpretation for RAIM design is not clearly standardized. Finally simulations results are presented. They permit to evaluate RAIM ability to provide integrity monitoring for approaches with vertical guidance operations considering various scenarios. The main contributions of this thesis are a detailed computation of user equivalent range error variance, an analysis of the effect of interferences on pseudorange measurement, an adaptation of LSR RAIM algorithm to nominal biases, an improvement of MSS protection levels computation, the implementation of GLR algorithm as a RAIM including the computation of an analytical expression of the threshold that satisfies the false alarm probability and the prediction of the probability of missed detection, design of a sequential GLR algorithm to detect step plus ramp failure and an analysis of the amplitude of smallest single biases that lead to a positioning failure. Least Squared Residual, Maximum Solution Separation and constrained Generalized Likelihood Ratio RAIM availabilities have been computed for APVI and LPV200 approaches using both GPS L1/L5 and Galileo E1/E5b pseudorange measurements. It appears that both APV I and LPV200 (VAL=35m) operations are available using GPS/Galileo + RAIM to provide integrity as an availability of 100 % has been obtained for the detection function of the three studied algorithms. An availability of 100 % has also been obtained for the LSR exclusion function. On the contrary, LSR RAIM FDE availabilities seem not sufficient to have Galileo + RAIM or GPS +RAIM as a sole means of navigation for vertically guided approaches

Robust Positioning in the Presence of Multipath and NLOS GNSS Signals

GNSS signals can be blocked and reflected by nearby objects, such as buildings, walls, and vehicles. They can also be reflected by the ground and by water. These effects are the dominant source of GNSS positioning errors in dense urban environments, though they can have an impact almost anywhere. Non- line-of-sight (NLOS) reception occurs when the direct path from the transmitter to the receiver is blocked and signals are received only via a reflected path. Multipath interference occurs, as the name suggests, when a signal is received via multiple paths. This can be via the direct path and one or more reflected paths, or it can be via multiple reflected paths. As their error characteristics are different, NLOS and multipath interference typically require different mitigation techniques, though some techniques are applicable to both. Antenna design and advanced receiver signal processing techniques can substantially reduce multipath errors. Unless an antenna array is used, NLOS reception has to be detected using the receiver's ranging and carrier-power-to-noise-density ratio (C/N0) measurements and mitigated within the positioning algorithm. Some NLOS mitigation techniques can also be used to combat severe multipath interference. Multipath interference, but not NLOS reception, can also be mitigated by comparing or combining code and carrier measurements, comparing ranging and C/N0 measurements from signals on different frequencies, and analyzing the time evolution of the ranging and C/N0 measurements

Integration of ARAIM technique for integrity performance prediction, procedures development and pre-flight operations

Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) is a new Aircraft Based Augmentation System (ABAS) technique, firstly presented in the two reports of the GNSS Evolutionary Architecture Study (GEAS). The ARAIM technique offers the opportunity to enable GNSS receivers to serve as a primary means of navigation, worldwide, for precision approach down to LPV-200 operation, while at the same time potentially reducing the support which has to be provided by Ground and Satellite Based Augmented Systems (GBAS and SBAS). Previous work analysed ARAIM performance, clearly showing the potential of this new architectures to provide the Required Navigation Performance down to LPV 200 approach procedures. However, almost all of the studies have been performed with respect to fixed points on a grid on the Earth’s surface, with full view of the sky, evaluating ARAIM performance from a geometrical point of view and using nominal performance in simulated scenarios which last several days. Though, the operational configuration was not examined; attitude changes from manoeuvres, obscuration by the aircraft body and shadowing from the surrounding environment could all affect the incoming signal from the GNSS constellations, leading to configurations that could adversely affect the real performance. In this research, ARAIM performances in simulated operational configurations are presented. Four different algorithms were developed that integrate the ARAIM technique for performance prediction analysis. These algorithms could usefully be implemented: • In the design of instrument approach procedures. The algorithms could be used to improve the procedure of the development of new instrument approaches, reducing time, effort and costs. • In the aircraft Flight Management Systems. The algorithms could support the pilots in the pre-flight briefing, highlighting possible integrity outage in advance and allowing them to select a different approach or making them aware of the need to utilise additional positioning systems. Increased awareness and better pre-flight planning could ultimately improve the safety of flights and contribute to the safe introduction of GNSS as a viable positioning method for instrument approach. The results showed that the aircraft attitude and the surrounding environment affect the performance of the ARAIM algorithm; each satellite lost generates a peak in the performance parameters that depends on the total number of satellites in view, their relative geometry and on the number of satellites lost at the same time. The main outcome of this research is the identification that the ideal scenario would be to have a tri-constellation system that provides at the same time high redundancy, reliability and increased safety margin

Reliability of Direct Georeferencing Phase 1: An Overview of the Current Approaches and Possibilities., Checking and Improving of Digital Terrain Models / Reliability of Direct Georeferencing.

After some initial hesitations, the direct georeferencing (DG) of airborne sensors by GPS/INS is now a widely accepted approach in the airborne mapping industry. Implementing DG not only speeds up the mapping process and thus increases the productivity, but also opens the door to new monitoring applications. Although the system manufactures tend to claim that DG is a well established technique and no longer a research topic, the technology users often encounter pitfalls due to undetected sensor behavior, varying data quality and consistency. One could almost clair that the reliability of DG is the Achilles'heel of this otherwise revolutionary approach in civil airborne mapping. EuroSDR has recognized this problem and would like to address it in several phases. First phase of this effort are some preliminary investigations, charting the current situation and making suggestions for further research. The investigations are divided into the following technology fields: GNSS, inertial sensors and estimation methods, integrity and communication, calibration and integrated sensor orientation. Each field describes the current situation with respect to DG and discusses additional existing possibilities. These do not claim to be complete or exhaustive; however, they claim to address the essential features, methods and processes, the combination of which could increase the reliability of DG substantially without setting large side penalties

Development of GNSS/INS/SLAM Algorithms for Navigation in Constrained Environments

For land vehicles, the requirements of the navigation solution in terms of accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability are more and more stringent, especially with the development of autonomous vehicles. This type of application requires a navigation system not only capable of providing an accurate and reliable position, velocity and attitude solution continuously but also having a reasonable cost. In the last decades, GNSS has been the most widely used navigation system especially with the receivers decreasing cost over the years. However, despite of its capability to provide absolute navigation information with long time accuracy, this system suffers from problems related to signal propagation especially in urban environments where buildings, trees and other structures hinder the reception of GNSS signals and degrade their quality. This can result in significant positioning error exceeding in some cases a kilometer. Many techniques are proposed in the literature to mitigate these problems and improve the GNSS accuracy. Unfortunately, all these techniques have limitations. A possible way to overcome these problems is to fuse “good” GNSS measurements with other sensors having complementary characteristics. In fact, by exploiting the complementarity of sensors, hybridization algorithms can improve the navigation solution compared to solutions provided by each stand-alone sensor. Generally, the most widely implemented hybridization algorithms for land vehicles fuse GNSS measurements with inertial and/or odometric data. Thereby, these Dead-Reckoning (DR) sensors ensure the system continuity when GNSS information is unavailable and improve the system performance when GNSS signals are degraded, and, in return the GNSS limits the drift of the DR solution if it is available. However the performance achieved by this hybridization depends thoroughly on the quality of the DR sensor used especially when GNSS signals are degraded or unavailable. Therefore, this Ph.D. thesis, which is part of a common French research project involving two laboratories and three companies, aims at extending the classical hybridization architecture by including other sensors capable of improving the navigation performances while having a low cost and being easily embeddable. For this reason, the use of vision-based navigation techniques to provide additional information is proposed in this thesis. In fact, cameras have become an attractive positioning sensor recently with the development of Visual Odometry and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques, capable of providing accurate navigation solution while having reasonable cost. In addition, visual navigation solutions have a good quality in textured environments where GNSS is likely to encounter bad performance. Therefore, this work focuses on developing a multi-sensor fusion architecture integrating visual information with the previously mentioned sensors. In particular, the contribution of this information to improve the vision-free navigation system performance is highlighted. The proposed architecture respects the project constraints consisting of developing a versatile and modular low-cost system capable of providing continuously a good navigation solution, where each sensor may be easily discarded when its information should not be used in the navigation solutio