scholarly journals Magnetometer heading estimation through online calibration for land navigation applications

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Muhammad Iqbal ◽  
Masood Ur Rehman ◽  
Umar Iqbal Bhatti ◽  
Najam Abbas Naqvi

For land navigation applications, the integration of the magnetometer with the combination of MEMS-INS and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) give excellent results. During land navigation applications, the magnetometer’s heading can also be used during the GNSS outages. The calibration of the magnetometer is indispensable to calculate its accurate heading. There exist several methods for magnetometer calibration. Some are offline and some are online calibration techniques. In this paper, a calibration method is proposed to estimate the magnetometer’s parameters through online calibration in run time. In this method, the reference magnetic field is calculated from the World Magnetic Model (WMM-2020). Moreover, reference roll, pitch and heading are provided from some other sources such as GNSS, Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS), or reference INS. For different roll and pitch sectors, calibration parameters are estimated and stored. These parameters are used for magnetometer online calibration during the field testing. Both the headings obtained by the online calibration and conventional lab calibrations are analysed. Furthermore, the heading estimated through the online calibration is autonomous and fast. Subsequently, there is no user involvement in this online calibration technique and no specific movements to the device are provided. The heading obtained by novel technique is as accurate as obtained by conventional offline lab calibration.

2013 ◽  
Vol 805-806 ◽  
pp. 851-854
Author(s):  
Zhi Ge Jia ◽  
Zhao Sheng Nie ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Xiao Guan ◽  
Di Jin Wang

This work describes the field testing process of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver under 220KV, 500KV UHV transmission line and standard calibration field. Analysis for GNSS data results shows that the radio interference generated by EHV transmission lines have no effect on GNSS receiver internal noise levels and valid GNSS observation rate. Within 50 meters of the EHV transmission lines, the multi-path effects (mp1 and mp2 value) significantly exceeded the normal range and becomes larger with the increase of the voltage .outside 50 meters of the EHV transmission line, the multi-path effects have almost no effect on the high-precision GNSS observations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Li ◽  
Junxiang Tan ◽  
Hua Liu

Mobile LiDAR Scanning (MLS) systems and UAV LiDAR Scanning (ULS) systems equipped with precise Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)/Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) positioning units and LiDAR sensors are used at an increasing rate for the acquisition of high density and high accuracy point clouds because of their safety and efficiency. Without careful calibration of the boresight angles of the MLS systems and ULS systems, the accuracy of data acquired would degrade severely. This paper proposes an automatic boresight self-calibration method for the MLS systems and ULS systems using acquired multi-strip point clouds. The boresight angles of MLS systems and ULS systems are expressed in the direct geo-referencing equation and corrected by minimizing the misalignments between points scanned from different directions and different strips. Two datasets scanned by MLS systems and two datasets scanned by ULS systems were used to verify the proposed boresight calibration method. The experimental results show that the root mean square errors (RMSE) of misalignments between point correspondences of the four datasets after boresight calibration are 2.1 cm, 3.4 cm, 5.4 cm, and 6.1 cm, respectively, which are reduced by 59.6%, 75.4%, 78.0%, and 94.8% compared with those before boresight calibration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Gryte ◽  
Martin L. Sollie ◽  
Tor Arne Johansen

AbstractAutomatic recovery is an important step in enabling fully autonomous missions using fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating from ships or other moving platforms. However, automatic recovery in moving arrest systems is only briefly studied in the research literature, and is not yet an option when using low-cost, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) autopilots. Acknowledging the reliability and low cost of COTS avionics, this paper adds recovery functionality as a modular extension based on non-intrusive additions to an autopilot with very general assumptions on its interface. This is achieved by line-of-sight guidance, which sends an augmented desired position to the autopilot, to ensure line-following along a virtual runway that guides the UAV into the arrest system. The translation and rotation of this line is determined by the pose of the arrest system, determined using two Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, where one is configured as a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) base station. The relative position of the UAV and arrest system is also precisely estimated using RTK GNSS. Through extensive field testing, on two different fixed-wing UAVs, the system has shown its performance and reliability; 43 recovery attempts in a stationary net hit 0.01 ± 0.25m to the right and 0.07 ± 0.20m below the target in calm conditions. Further, 15 recoveries in a barge-mounted, ship-towed net hit 0.06 ± 0.53m to the right and 0.98 ± 0.27m below the target in winds up to 4 m/s. The remaining error is largely systematic, caused by communication delays, and could be reduced with more integral effect or through direct compensation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 2442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nereida Rodriguez-Alvarez ◽  
Sidharth Misra ◽  
Erika Podest ◽  
Mary Morris ◽  
Xavier Bosch-Lluis

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission became one of the newest spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite System–Reflectometry (GNSS-R) missions collecting Global Positioning System (GPS) bistatic radar measurements when the band-pass center frequency of its radar receiver was switched to the GPS L2C band. SMAP-Reflectometry (SMAP-R) brings a set of unique capabilities, such as polarimetry and improved spatial resolution, that allow for the exploration of scientific applications that other GNSS-R missions cannot address. In order to leverage SMAP-R for scientific applications, a calibration must be performed to account for the characteristics of the SMAP radar receiver and each GPS transmitter. In this study, we analyze the unique characteristics of SMAP-R, as compared to other GNSS-R missions, and present a calibration method for the SMAP-R signals that enables the standardized use of these signals by the scientific community. There are two key calibration parameters that need to be corrected: The first is the GPS transmitted power and GPS antenna gain at the incidence angle of the measured reflections and the second is the convolution of the SMAP high gain antenna pattern and the glistening zone (Earth surface area from where GPS signals scatter). To account for the GPS transmitter variability, GPS instrument properties—transmitted power and antenna gain—are collocated with information collected from the CYclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) at SMAP’s range of incidence angles (37.3° to 42.7°). To account for the convolutional effect of the SMAP antenna gain, both the scattering area of the reflected GPS signal and the SMAP antenna footprint are mapped on the surface. We account for the size of the scattering area corresponding to each delay and Doppler bin of the SMAP-R measurements based off the SMAP antenna pattern, and normalize according to the size of a measurement representative to one obtained with an omnidirectional antenna. We have validated these calibration methods through an analysis of the coherency of the reflected signal over an extensive area of old sea ice having constant surface characteristics over a period of 3 months. By selecting a vicarious scattering surface with high coherency, we eliminated scene variability and complexity in order to avoid scene dependent aliases in the calibration. The calibration method reduced the dependence on the GPS transmitter power and gain from ~1.08 dB/dB to a residual error of about −0.2 dB/dB. Results also showed that the calibration method eliminates the effect of the high gain antenna filtering effect, thus reducing errors as high as 10 dB on angles furthest from SMAP’s constant 40° incidence angle.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (17) ◽  
pp. 4728
Author(s):  
Max Jwo Lem Lee ◽  
Shang Lee ◽  
Hoi-Fung Ng ◽  
Li-Ta Hsu

3D-mapping-aided (3DMA) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning that improves positioning performance in dense urban areas has been under development in recent years, but it still faces many challenges. This paper details a new algorithm that explores the potential of using building boundaries for positioning and heading estimation. Rather than applying complex simulations to analyze and correct signal reflections by buildings, the approach utilizes a convolutional neural network to differentiate between the sky and building in a sky-pointing fisheye image. A new skymask matching algorithm is then proposed to match the segmented fisheye images with skymasks generated from a 3D building model. Each matched skymask holds a latitude, longitude coordinate and heading angle to determine the precise location of the fisheye image. The results are then compared with the smartphone GNSS and advanced 3DMA GNSS positioning methods. The proposed method provides degree-level heading accuracy, and improved positioning accuracy similar to other advanced 3DMA GNSS positioning methods in a rich urban environment.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolfo Martucci ◽  
Giovanni Cerasuolo ◽  
Orsola Petrella ◽  
Marco Laracca

Thanks to their metrological characteristics (accuracy, dimensions, synchronization capability, easy interfacing, and so on), in the last few years, the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) based speed instruments are often used in a wide field of application. The traceability of the measurement results achieved by the GNSS instrument should be made by means of calibration procedures in compliance with the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) policy on the traceability of measurement results. In this context, some calibration methodologies have been proposed in the literature or used by some calibration centers. In a speed range from 1 to 300 km/h, an analysis on the suitability of the experimental calibration method (based on a couple of photocells placed on the road at a certain distance) for the GNSS speed measurement systems is presented in this paper. An analysis of the measurement setup has allowed for the recognition of both all the uncertainty contributions and defines the variability range of their values. After the formulation of the relationships between the uncertainty contributions and the total calibration uncertainty due to the calibration method, the sensitivity analysis has been made. The analyzed measurement setup, even if considering a careful choice of both instrumentations and methodologies, is suitable for the calibration of high accuracy GNSS based instruments only considering distances between the photocells sufficiently large and for speed values lower than 200 km/h. In any case, the proposed analysis can be a useful tool to allow for the choices on the measurement setup to reach the desired trade-off between calibration costs and compliance with technical requirements and also the calibration of instrumentation different by GNSS.


Author(s):  
Karim Aoulad Ali ◽  
Philippe Barré ◽  
Guillaume Andrieux ◽  
Jean-François Diouris

To achieve a high IIP2 level on a mixer, static calibration techniques have been developed. Most of them are based on an intentional introduction of a calibrated mismatch in the structure of the mixer. They are performed at production stage. It is also possible to automate them but their activation is strongly limited in portable devices because of system restrictions. Furthermore, IIP2 is sensitive to system variations, thereby degrading the calibration operation. The challenge is so to make the calibration system dynamic, i.e. performing an online calibration. This paper presents a perturbance-based algorithm as part of an automatic calibration system to track the optimum IIP2 level. Measurements validate the algorithm behavior and indicate the feasibility of using it in a complete calibration system for a future on-chip implementation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4222
Author(s):  
Wei Huang ◽  
San Jiang ◽  
Wanshou Jiang

Camera self-calibration determines the precision and robustness of AT (aerial triangulation) for UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) images. The UAV images collected from long transmission line corridors are critical configurations, which may lead to the “bowl effect” with camera self-calibration. To solve such problems, traditional methods rely on more than three GCPs (ground control points), while this study designs a new self-calibration method with only one GCP. First, existing camera distortion models are grouped into two categories, i.e., physical and mathematical models, and their mathematical formulas are exploited in detail. Second, within an incremental SfM (Structure from Motion) framework, a camera self-calibration method is designed, which combines the strategies for initializing camera distortion parameters and fusing high-precision GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) observations. The former is achieved by using an iterative optimization algorithm that progressively optimizes camera parameters; the latter is implemented through inequality constrained BA (bundle adjustment). Finally, by using four UAV datasets collected from two sites with two data acquisition modes, the proposed algorithm is comprehensively analyzed and verified, and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can dramatically alleviate the “bowl effect” of self-calibration for weakly structured long corridor UAV images, and the horizontal and vertical accuracy can reach 0.04 m and 0.05 m, respectively, when using one GCP. In addition, compared with open-source and commercial software, the proposed method achieves competitive or better performance.


ROBOT ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Feng WANG ◽  
Kai CHEN ◽  
Xiaoping CHEN

2018 ◽  
Vol 940 (10) ◽  
pp. 2-6
Author(s):  
J.A. Younes ◽  
M.G. Mustafin

The issue of calculating the plane rectangular coordinates using the data obtained by the satellite observations during the creation of the geodetic networks is discussed in the article. The peculiarity of these works is in conversion of the coordinates into the Mercator projection, while the plane coordinate system on the base of Gauss-Kruger projection is used in Russia. When using the technology of global navigation satellite system, this task is relevant for any point (area) of the Earth due to a fundamentally different approach in determining the coordinates. The fact is that satellite determinations are much more precise than the ground coordination methods (triangulation and others). In addition, the conversion to the zonal coordinate system is associated with errors; the value at present can prove to be completely critical. The expediency of using the Mercator projection in the topographic and geodetic works production at low latitudes is shown numerically on the basis of model calculations. To convert the coordinates from the geocentric system with the Mercator projection, a programming algorithm which is widely used in Russia was chosen. For its application under low-latitude conditions, the modification of known formulas to be used in Saudi Arabia is implemented.


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