An intelligent differential GPS navigation system

Abstract

This thesis describes an Intelligent Differential GPS Navigation System developed for a PhD research project. The first part of the work was to apply differential technology to Global Positioning System to locate the current position of the user with an improved positioning accuracy. The essential part of this Differential GPS system is a Differential GPS Reference Station. This DGPS Reference Station includes a DGPS mathematical model and the corresponding algorithms, which calculates the differential correction messages. These messages are then transmitted to a mobile GPS receiver by a radio data link. By using these corrections, the mobile GPS receiver's positioning accuracy can be improved from about 100 m to 4 m. This DGPS Reference station has been used to implement system software for this research. Differential correction algorithms were modified, characteristics of system components were changed, and different digital filters were also applied at different locations to investigate the impact on system performance. Besides all these capabilities which are needed for the research purpose, this DGPS Reference Station has all the standard functions, and can be used as a standard DGPS Reference Station. The second part of the work was to combine this Differential GPS system with a suitable digital map to form a navigation system. A suitable digital map database was chosen and modified, and the content of the map was then reproduced on the mobile GPS receiver's host PC screen. This digital map, combined with the current location of the user, provides the basic navigational information for the user to reach a desired destination. To help the user further and demonstrate the potential use of the system, an intelligent route-planing algorithm that can produce the optimum route automatically was also designed. The system integration was achieved by the design of the mobile navigation unit and the combination of this mobile navigation unit with the constructed DGPS Reference Station. The final system consists of a DGPS Reference Station, a UHF radio data transmitter, a mobile GPS receiver, a digital map system, a route searching and planing algorithm and a UHF radio data receiver. Field trials were carried out to test the system static and dynamic performances. Repeated experiments showed that both the static and dynamic positioning accuracies were within the range of 4 meters. The constructed system is a prototype navigation system which incorporates the basic navigational functions. It is envisaged that this system can be directly used, or further developed to suit a special need, as required. A typical application of the system would be to guide a user to a desired destination. Other examples include: aircraft autolanding control system, car self-driving, taxi fleet control, criminal tracing and personal navigation systems.