Technology Overview

GNSS

GNSS stands for Global Navigation Satellite System. A GNSS consists of a set of satellites in medium Earth orbit that broadcast navigation signals with a common operator. These navigation signals can be picked up by a GNSS receiver on the earth to estimate that receiver’s position and velocity. For a long time the only operational GNSS was the United States GPS. However, the Russian GLONASS, the Chinese BeiDou GNSS, and the European Union’s Galileo GNSS are fully operational.

GNSS provides a fairly accurate absolute position (down to 1.2 metres without assistance and as low as 8 mm with) and velocity (as low as 0.007 metres/second). The main drawback of GNSS is that the receiver must have a clear signal from at least 4 satellites to function. GNSS signals are very weak and struggle to penetrate through buildings, trees and other objects obstructing an uninterrupted view of the sky. GNSS can also occasionally drop out due to disturbances in the upper atmosphere, or the presence of jammers.

AHRS

AHRS stands for Attitude and Heading Reference System. An AHRS uses accelerometers, magnetometer data and gyroscopes combined in a mathematical algorithm to provide orientation. Orientation consists of the three body angles roll, pitch and heading.

INS

INS stands for Inertial Navigation System. An inertial navigation system can provide position and velocity similar to GNSS but with some major differences. The principle of inertial navigation is the measurement of acceleration, which is then integrated into velocity. The velocity is then further integrated to estimate position. Due to noise in the measurement and the compounding of that noise through the integration steps, inertial navigation has an error that increases exponentially over time. Inertial navigation systems have a very low relative error over short time periods but over long time periods the error can increase enormously.

GNSS/INS

By combining GNSS and INS together in a mathematical algorithm, it is possible to take advantage of the benefits of the long-term precision of GNSS and the short-term accuracy of inertial sensors. This provides an enhanced position and velocity solution that can withstand GNSS drop outs.