Navigation system

Navigation system of the UAV is the system that measures and delivers all the navigational parameters and
quantities to the user. Some of the navigational quantities that are required are:

Position in global coordinate system

Velocity

Acceleration

Attitude (roll, pitch and heading)

Angular rate.
These quantities are usually measured or estimated. A basic configuration of an UAV looks as shown in the figure
below. Some of the basic sensors used in the UAV navigation system are Air data computer (ADC), inertial
Measurement Unit (IMU), and global positioning unit (GPS). IMU senses angular moments and the specific forces
that are exhibited by the UAS, and measures it giving out accerlation and angular rates (Velocities).

Global positioning system is a form of global navigation satellite system. The satellite positions are known precisely,
so its possible to estimate the position of the UAV using trilateration based on the time of arrival of signal from the
satellite. The static and total pressure of air round the platform is measure by the ADC. These sensors calculate
almost all the navigation parameters required. Desired performance in the navigation system can be achieved by
fusion of the different sensor. The above configurations performance is stable and provides drift free position and
velocity information, but the drawback is that it heavily depends on GPS. This is not desirable as GPS can be
spoofed or jammed. In order to mitigate these risks alternative means of navigational methods must be devised.
Other sensors can be introduced in combination with sensor fusion which in order could deliver an estimate of
navigational parameters that are drift free and has good accuracy.
The primary function of aircraft navigation system is to provide a consistent and accurate solution of the aircrafts
position, velocity and attitude. This is critical in order to control and guide the UAVs flight. Even though there are
variety of sensors and approaches, the core functionality is exclusively delivered through GPS/INS solution. The two
systems together provide a robust estimate for a lower cost. The GPS/ INS integration has been a significant
enabling technology [57, 61, 86, 87].
Inertial Navigation System (INS)
INS is a Dead Reckoning system (DR), that is calculating the current position based on the previously determined
position. The complete navigation system is defined by combining accelerometer and gyroscope measurement
using a specific set of equation of motion. The inertial sensors bandwidth and finite accuracy results in a continuous
integration of the error measurements that degrades the navigation solution over time. The inertial measurement
unit (IMU) in the INS acquires and calibrates the systems gyro and accelerometer measurements. The UAVs
position, velocity and the altitude is estimated by the navigation computer in the INS. The figure below shows the
general structure of INS.

a IMU = Accelerationmeasurement by accelerometer

b sIMU =Rate measurement by gyroscope
^
PgINS =Position
g
v^ INS =velocity
^ gINS =altitude
The performance of the IMUs accelerometer and gyroscope is given by misalignment, scale factor repeatability.
random walk, and bias stability. At the current stage the models and equations used to model the accelerometer
and gyroscope and error sources are well defined. [18, 33, 81] In the inertial measurement the error source
obtained are:
Misalignment results in distortion in the acquired angular rate vector, its caused due to the alignment of the sensor
with respect to the desired orthogonal axis.
Scale factor repeatability can be defined as the ratio of the observed change in the output as compared to the
actual value or input. These unaccounted errors usually result due to excitations like temperature or non linearity.
Random Walkis independent of other error soucres from accelerometer or gyroscope. It is a measure of orientation
error resulted due to the continuous intergration.
Bias stabilityis usually expressed as an allen variable its states how much measurement bias will change over a
period for a accelerometer or gyroscope. [38]
Before transmitting to the Navigation computer IMU is required to correct the inertial measurement for any known
errors like misalignment, bias or scale factor. Using the estimate of the UAVs altitude from the accelerometer; the
gravity vector and earth rotational rate can be removed from the accelerometer and gyroscope respectively. The
fidelity of these corrections are based on the accuracy of the navigational solution and quality of the sensor. INS is
basically categorized into the following categories tactical, industrial or consumer grade, and navigation. [18]. The
table below shows the comparison between the different grades of INS.

Using the equations of motion driven by the IMUs acceleration and angular rates measurement; calculate position,
velocity and the altitude is repetitively updated by the IN computer. There are a variety of schemes and sensor
types to provide the inertial solution. The best navigational solution is provided by the navigation grade units and
are capable to measure earths rotation rate; due to the cost weight and size constrains the are limited to large
commercial and military aircraft system. The development and advances in low cost Micro-Electro-Mechanical
system (MEMS) base solution and inertial sensor technology has been a key enabling technology for UAS. These
devices have the potential of providing the complete solution in a power efficient, small, self contained packages.
Over the past decade combining INS and GPS has been a active research domain due to their capability to achieve
an accurate long term solution. [2, 12, 44, 48, 81, 84].
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Global Navigation Satellite systems (GNSS) provide absolute position reference through a known constellation of
satellites from timing and trilateration of signals transmitted. NAVSTAR global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS,
COMPASS and Galileo are some of the popularly used GNSS systems [42, 101]. With a constellation of 24 satellites,
GPS is the only fully functional GNSS with a global coverage. The accuracy of the position estimated by GPS is
constrained by the visibility relative to the receiver and satellite geometry. And the accuracy also depends on how
precisely the transmission delay and signal interference are accounted by the receiver.

I GPS =inphase ( I ) samples receiver

QGPS=quadrature ( Q ) samples receiver
GPS= pseudorange
GPS=Range rate measurements
^
PgGPS=Computed position
g
v^ GPS
=Computed velocity

The measurement performance is based on the receivers estimation of range from the receivers antenna to each
of the satellites visible. To determine the 3d position of the receiver the range measurements and the delta in the
receiver clock is then combined. Computing a valid solution requires at least four valid range measurements as it is
four dimensional problem. The computed position can be further improved by addition of further measurements.
GPS receives its range through the correlating the received, satellite specific, pseudo random noise (PRN) to a
replica generated within the receiver. The approximate range is estimated by multiplying the speed of light by
pseudo random noise (PRN)correlated time delay. The range measurement used to calculate the positon has a
number of error, which is as below.
Tropospheric delay leads to a postion error in the order of 0.5m caused due to the signal refraction in the
atmosphere
Ionosphere delay also leads to a position erroe in the order of 0.5 m which is caused by dispersion of signals due
to the delay by free electrons present in the signal path; varies with frequency.
Multipath error causes signal delays and inaccuracies upto 3m, its due to the path reflection from the surrounding
terrain.
Receiver clock error are due to the delay calculation resulting in artificial errors, even though initially corrected but
still can result in errors of the order 5 m.
Satellite clock error is uncertainties in the satellites atomic clock through drift, bias and noise, which results in a
position error of about 2 m.
GPS is operated by the course acquisition C/A code (available to public) in the L-band using L1 frequency
modulation; L1/L2 frequencies modulated by P(Y) code (available to authorized authorities only). The phase offset of
L1 & L2 is also measured by the receiver. The equations used in modeling the GPS measurement, measurement
specifics and transmission frequencies are readily available in the literature [42,47].

The pseudo range measurements estimated by multiple satellites is combined by GPS filter. Single point (SP)
solution generated by the carrier measurements and L1 code is used as baseline performance for commercial
systems. The L2 frequency code measurement can be combined with carrier measurements and L1 code using
codeless techniques [42]. Additionally, SP solution can be amplified using a Satellite Based Augmentation Systems
(SBAS) like European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and Wide Area Augmentation System
(WAAS) or using a local differential solution like differential GPS (DGPS) and Real time Kinematic (RTK) [42,65].
There are numerous literatures on GPS for its general description and performance specifications [42,89-92].
GPS/INS Integration