Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), the first and most famous of which is the Global Positioning System (GPS), have become indispensable infrastructure in modern life. This reliance is growing, demanding GNSS-enable technology performance improvements. GNSS operation involves terrestrial antennas and receivers processing very weak signals transmitted from distant satellites. Standard measurement processing results in metre-level positioning accuracy, so-long as adequate sky view is maintained. Processing in, i.e., Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) or Precise Point Positioning (PPP) mode results in dm- to cm-level positioning accuracy. The primary objective of the proposed Discovery Grant research is the logical extension of the on-going research program to greatly enhance the resilience of such satellite-based solutions now that they are possible. Generally, resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. For GNSS, this means managing intentional or unintentional signal blockages that produce greater position error, position bias or denial of service. The multi-pronged approach proposed to address this problem is based on an extension, expansion and enhancement of the applicant's on-going research program. The proposed research tasks are #1 Determination and mitigation of physical effects which cause the remaining positioning outliers in high-performance GNSS PPP. #2 Determination of an automatic, adaptive, optimal measurement selection and weighting scheme for noisy GNSS measurements from mass-market equipment. #3 Expansion of sensor fusion models from GNSS + PPP with other navigation sensors. #4 Application of artificial intelligence (primarily machine learning and deep learning) to improve GNSS and other sensor measurement processing and sensor fusion over contemporary filtering approaches. #5 Application of new signal interference mitigating antennas and receivers to improve precise positioning resilience. #6 Application of new low Earth orbiter-based satellite navigation signals to improve GNSS PPP positioning availability and solution re-initialization in signal obstructed urban areas and during signal interference. Key research novelty and expective significant can be categorized as follows. a) Reduced infrastructure costs - both in regional reference / calibration stations and user equipment. b) Improved positioning precision, accuracy, availability and integrity in partially sky-obstructed environments, which, in turn, will improve existing GNSS-based positioning and navigation solutions. c) Increased GNSS-based viability in more safe-of-life applications, where positioning SIL (safety integrity level) must be defined and maintained. d) Enhanced specific application areas: lower cost science; lower cost and higher precision engineering; higher precision driverless vehicles; precise position-enabled smartphone apps; and safer terrestrial and airborne (autonomous) drones.