The widespread use of navigation devices is increasing rapidly. This all becomes possible mainly due to increased development of hardware, for instance increased computing power (e.g. microcontroller, GPS, Compass) and software. The Handheld Navigation (HNS) is one of the navigation techniques. It is used in different fields. Just like any-other means of navigation, it is used to determine the position and direction of the user accurately and find the shortest track with precision. Global Positioning System (GPS) is a technology that can be used to determine position coordinates, time, speed and course over ground. The electronic compass is a traditional device that is used to determine the current directional angle of the user. The goal of the thesis is to compare the results of directions angle and distance from two designs (direction’s angle and distance are calculated based upon information from GPS receiver and the other direction’s angle and distance are calculated based upon information from GPS receiver and Compass). In the thesis, we have developed dual designs to achieve the goal of the thesis. The first design uses the GPS receiver coordinates to calculate the direction angle and distance, the second design integrates the GPS positioning and the digital compass, to calculate the direction and distance of Handheld Navigation user. Each device communicates with the microcontroller through the interfaces. As there are two designs. Directional results are obtained from each design. Then these results are compared with each other. After comparison, the more accurate result is chosen for the user. A Handheld Navigation PCB board design has been made. In addition SD card and LCD display are used. Both designs have been carried out on Altera Cyclone II FPGAs. The result of the prototyping shows, that the best design for Handheld Navigation System is the design that consists of GPS and Compass because the compass sensing is stable depending on the magnetic north while the previous design depends on calculated direction on movement and then also on the speed of movement. / Handhållna navigationssystem för satellitnavigering, GPS, har blivit allt vanligare. Vid navigation måste man känna till riktningen till målet men också i vilken riktning navigationsutrustningen pekar eftersom detta utgör referens för att beräkna korrigeringar. Om navigationsutrustningen rör sig med en viss hastighet så kan rörelseriktningen beräknas från ett antal på varandra följande positions- koordinater. Denna metod fungerar bra i t.ex. ett fordon som rör sig med en rimlig hastighet. Om systemet skall användas av en person som går så uppstår problem. Personen kan stanna upp och vrida runt i olika riktningar. Då finns då inga bra tidigare koordinater för att beräkna rörelseriktningen dvs. hur navigationssystemet pekar. När personen sedan rör sig i en viss riktning så måste systemet förflyttas en viss sträcka innan riktningen kan beräknas. Längden på den sträcka som krävs påverkas också av noggrannheten hos koordinatbestämningen. GPS- systemet har en icke försumbar osäkerhet på ett antal meter. Om en elektronisk kompass används för att bestämma hur navigationssystemet pekar så försvinner kravet på att systemet måste förflyttas för att kunna bestämma sin riktning. I detta examensarbete har ett GPS baserat navigationssystem utvecklats för att kunna jämföra system baserade på enbart GPS med sådana som har också en elektronisk kompass. Ett utvecklingskort för programmerbar logik har använts som plattform. Kortets FPGA-krets innehåller både processor, Nios-II soft core, och interface mot givare och minnen. Resultaten från testerna visar, inte helt oväntat, att ett system med kompass ger en säkrare navigation och en kortare väg mellan start och mål. Detta gäller främst när det finns hinder i vägen.

With advancement in automotive systems, it is not just the combination of mechanical devices like in old days. Almost all the systems of today's modern car are controlled electronically by a number of ECUs (Electronics Control Unit) with the combination of sensor modules. To exchange information between the ECU and sensor modules a number of communication standards are used. The most commonly used standards are CAN, LIN, and PWM etc. The data transmission between the ECU and sensor modules can be easily established with a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) techniques in comparison with CAN or LIN. PWM provide a convenient solution in terms of cost and performance when the data-rate is up to 10-bits. While for higher resolution data rates its performance is not satisfied. Extra effort is needed to implement diagnostic information for the integrity of data. Also, the accuracy of PWM signal is dependent on the noise voltage and channel bandwidth. In 10-bit system a single bit is represented by 4mV which face serious problem in automotive system due to the noise voltage pulses which effect the resolution of the PWM. The alternative solution for safe and high data rate which is more than 10-bit resolution is to used CAN and LIN protocols. Both CAN and LIN have availability of diagnostic modes for an ensured data transmission. Also, their capabilities for interconnecting a number of nodes (sensors-modules) on the same network can significantly reduce the wiring cost. But in automotive a number of systems need to communicate through point-to-point link, and it seem to be too expensive to used CAN and LIN for point-to-point communication because of its development complexity and wiring cost for a standalone system. To overcome these issues and to provide an alternative low-cost solution the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) developed a 3-wire new digital point-to-point protocol called SENT. SENT (Single Edge Nibble Transmission) Protocol is now an international standard (SAE J2716). SENT is unidirectional point-to-point communication protocol, which can be used for high resolution data transmission between sensor module and ECU. The data are transmitted by sensor module in a series of pulses each pulse is 4-bit (one nibble) long and the data are measured between two falling edges by the receiving module. There are total of nine pulses which defined the SENT frame. The first pulse is called calibration pulse, it is used for compensating to recalibrate all the other pulses in case of transmitter clock deviation, this is the best feature of SENT and can be implemented in the decoder design. This thesis work focuses on the development of SENT protocol decoder and its signal robustness analysis in comparison with the conventional PWM signal. Our first goal is to developed SENT-Protocol decoder in software on the available microcontrollers is to check how much memory foot print is used and how much the processor overhead. Two platforms have been used for this purpose. First, two implementation designs prototype were made with fixed-point and floating-point development techniques on the 32-bit platform for SENT decoder. Secondly SENT-decoder were developed with 8-bit platform and compared with the two previous designs to check how much memory foot print is used and how much is the processor overhead. Finally, the signal integrity analysis has been performed for PWM and SENT signal using spice simulation. The purpose is to check the maximum data rate limit that the PWM signal support without creating any bit error in the transmitted signal. The same data rate is then used for SENT signal to be compared with PWM signal.