No description available.

In the next coming years global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) will make part of our daily life, as the world is becoming "GNSS-dependant in the same way that it has become Internet-dependant". Indeed, more than ten years folowing the opening up to civilians of satellite-based navigation systems initially designed for military purposes, civil satellite navigation applications are becoming more and more numerous. The potential benefits have proven enormous in terms of transport safety and efficiency as well as for non-transport-related industries. / Dans les toutes prochaines années, les systèmes globaux de navigation par satellite (GNSS) feront partie intégrante de notre vie quotidienne. En effet, un peu plus de dix ans après la libéralisation de l'accès des civils aux systèmes de navigation par satellite initialement conçus à des fins militaires, les applications civiles permises par la navigation par satellite sont de plus en plus nombreuses et les bénéfices potentiels sont énormes en matière de sécurité et d'efficacité des transports comme pour d'autres secteurs et industries. fr

"Author biographies are available in the expanded on-line version of this article [http://www.insidegnss.com/auto/julyaug09-tetewsky-final.pdf]" / "July/August 2009." Web site title: Making Sense of GPS Inter-Signal Corrections : Satellite Calibration Parameters in Legacy and Modernized Ionosphere Correction Algorithms.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur la modélisation des phénomènes de propagation affectant les signaux de navigation par satellite en environnement urbain dense avec une focalisation particulière sur les multitrajets et l'aspect large bande du canal de propagation espace/Terre. Le simulateur de canal pseudo temps-réel développé, SCHUN (Simplified CHannel for Urban Navigation), repose sur une approche hybride physico-statistique. La composante statistique de la modélisation permet essentiellement de générer une ville virtuelle à partir de distributions de bâtiments connues. Le reste de la modélisation s'appuie sur une approche physique simplifiée où les interactions ondes électromagnétiques/ville virtuelle reposent d'une part sur un modèle de macro-diffusion à l'échelle des façades, (3CM (Three Component Model)), et d'autre part sur un modèle physique de masquage du trajet direct par les bâtiments. Les principales méthodes numériques sous-jacentes sont l'optique physique et la théorie uniforme de la diffraction. Le simulateur de canal SCHUN ouvre aujourd'hui des perspectives intéressantes pour la modélisation large bande du canal de propagation espace/Terre. Optimisé pour des temps de calcul raisonnables, alliant une composante statistique à une composante physique simplifiée, ce simulateur a été conçu et validé par des mesures expérimentales pour répondre à des besoins de simulation des systèmes à diversité de satellite, diversité de réception, diversité de polarisation ou encore diversité de fréquence pour des applications de navigation par satellite. / This PhD work deals with land mobile satellite channel modelling and addresses the specific issue of satellite navigation systems in urban environments with a particular focus on multipath modelling and wide-band representation of the channel. The developed land mobile satellite channel simulator, SCHUN (Simplified CHannel for Urban Navigation), is based on a hybrid physical-statistical approach satisfying fast computation requirements. The statistical component of the modelling is mainly used during the virtual city synthesis step based on known statistical distributions of building height and street width. The rest of the modelling comes from deterministic methods using simplified electromagnetic interaction models reproducing building macro-scattering (3CM model (Three Component Model)) and building blockage of the direct path. The main underlying electromagnetic methods are the physical optics and the uniform theory of diffraction. The SCHUN simulator now opens interesting perspectives for the modelling of wide-band land mobile satellite propagation channel in dense urban environments. Optimised for pseudo real-time constraints, it uses both physical and statistical approaches. Furthermore, the SCHUN simulator has been designed and validated against measurements to answer specific needs of satellite diversity, receiving diversity, polarisation diversity or frequency diversity for satellite navigation applications.

The aim of this thesis is to determine the feasibility and benefits of potential use of satellite navigation in rail transport. The theoretical part focuses on the operation of satellite navigation and a description of important systems. The practical part deals with the use in rail transport. Analysis of telematics and fleet management shows one direction of use. Furthermore, there is analyzing of the projects and their value added and usability in practice. Thesis provides a description of the situation and opinion on future use of satellite systems.

Satellites have revolutionized navigation by making it more universal, accessible and ac- curate. Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most widely used satellite navigation system in the world. However, it is prone to errors from various sources such as the ionosphere, troposphere and clock biases. In order to make the system very accurate and reliable, especially to meet the requirements of safety-critical applications, Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) have recently been designed in various countries to augment the GPS by providing corrections for its errors. An Indian SBAS called GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation), developed for the Airports Authority of India (AAI) by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is currently being installed and proven for aviation and other use. The uncertain propagation delay of signals through the ionosphere is the most important contributor of error in GPS positioning, its maximal elimination is a major task of SBAS overlays. Ionospheric delays have steady, cyclic, and irregular components. The last types are of particular concern because they are unpredictable. This thesis deals with ionospheric depletion, an important phenomenon of this class that is specific to tropical regions like India and hence have not been well studied in the context of other SBAS systems of the world which cover mid-latitude domains. Depletion is an ionospheric phenomenon in which the density of electrons dips suddenly and then returns close to the previous value. It poses a challenge to the model adopted for ionospheric delay estimation since it may not be detectable by ground systems be- cause of its localized nature, and its occurrence and intensity cannot be predicted. In this work we have analyzed the depletion characteristics over the Indian region such as its distribution, frequency of occurrence, and depth and duration parameters. We have then studied and implemented an existing algorithm to detect a depletion from the Total Electron Content (TEC) data. This algorithm has been found to be inaccurate for estimation of depletion duration, and we have proposed an improved algorithm for depletion detection and shown it to be more suitable for the Indian SBAS, GAGAN. The algorithm utilizes multiple thresholds for depletion detection in order to improve performance in the presence of irregularities including noise. These thresholds are determined by analyzing real TEC data containing depletion events over the Indian region. The detected depletion events are those that have a strong likelihood of contributing large range errors and degrading GAGAN's reliability. The thresholds include depletion parameters such as the depth, duration, rate of change of TEC, and the rate of change of slope of the TEC curve. The characterization of depletion events over the Indian region yielded useful insights into the behaviour of the phenomenon. It was observed that the depletion events were invariably present post-sunset, between 1900 and 0200 hrs. This observation is consistent with the other studies on plasma bubbles so far. The average depth of the depletion was found to be about 3.31 meters of propagation delay while the strongest depletion corresponds to about 5.04 meters of delay. The latter observation impresses upon the need to detect and study the phenomenon of depletion since it is capable of causing a significant loss of accuracy and reliability to the system. The duration of the depletion was found to range from about 10 min to 2.35 hours. In addition, a statistical study of the relationship among the different parameters and a study devoted to now-casting of depletion was made to get a more quantitative insight into the phenomenon of depletion. Scintillation is another phenomenon occurring in the ionosphere which causes rapid fluctuations of phase and amplitude of the signal due to TEC variations in the ionosphere. The occurrences of depletion were observed to be accompanied by scintillation, as also noted in previous studies. The correlation of depletion and scintillation was studied using the data available for this research. A spatial characterization of the depletion events was also investigated using the same temporal TEC data from neighbouring stations which were relatively close to each other. This study addressed the movement of the plasma bubble with respect to the advection speed and direction with definite results. Attention was also devoted to the spatial dimension of the bubble as observed from various stations. Contributions to this variability in the apparent spatial extent comes from the observation of the depletion event from varying lines-of-sight corresponding to different GPS satellites which are also moving, and the differential `slicing' effect because of the location of the stations with respect to the plasma bubble, in addition to the evolution of the bubble during transit. The detection of depletion and its temporal characterization, in addition to the knowledge of its spatial extent and motion, can provide very useful insights on the behaviour of a depletion event and over the ionosphere in general. This knowledge and the mechanism for detection can help to improve the quality and dependability of the information provided by SBAS systems, in particular the Indian GAGAN system, for improved navigation in this part of the world. The present thesis aims to make a significant contribution in this direction.

This thesis deals with the possibilities of using satellite navigation systems in the insurance industry. In particular, the thesis focuses on the Czech Republic. The aim of this thesis is to analyze and evaluate the possibilities of using satellite systems, especially satellite navigation systems in the insurance industry. At first the thesis describes satellite navigation systems in general. Then it expresses using of the satellite navigation systems to manage costs of the insurance companies. In the last part it maps usage of satellite navigation systems in connection with insurance products, specifically: maps used by insurance companies, system of insurance Pay As You Drive (PAYD) and mobile applications.

Aquesta tesi gira al voltant del disseny de receptors per a sistemes globals de navegació per satèl·lit (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, GNSS). El terme GNSS fa referència a tots aquells sistemes de navegació basats en una constel·lació de satèl·lits que emeten senyals de navegació útils per a posicionament. El més popular és l'americà GPS, emprat globalment. Els esforços d'Europa per a tenir un sistema similar veuran el seu fruit en un futur proper, el sistema s'anomena Galileo. Altres sistemes globals i regionals existeixen dissenyats per al mateix objectiu: calcular la posició dels receptors. Inicialment la tesi presenta l'estat de l'art en GNSS, a nivell de l'estructura dels actuals senyals de navegació i pel que fa a l'arquitectura dels receptors.El disseny d'un receptor per a GNSS consta d'un seguit de blocs funcionals. Començant per l'antena receptora fins al càlcul final de la posició del receptor, el disseny proporciona una gran motivació per a la recerca en diversos àmbits. Tot i que la cadena de Radiofreqüència del receptor també és comentada a la tesis, l'objectiu principal de la recerca realitzada recau en els algorismes de processament de senyal emprats un cop realitzada la digitalització del senyal rebut. En un receptor per a GNSS, aquests algorismes es poden dividir en dues classes: els de sincronisme i els de posicionament. Aquesta classificació correspon als dos grans processos que típicament realitza el receptor. Primer, s'estima la distancia relativa entre el receptor i el conjunt de satèl·lits visibles. Aquestes distancies es calculen estimant el retard patit pel senyal des de que és emès pel corresponent satèl·lit fins que és rebut pel receptor. De l'estimació i seguiment del retard se n'encarrega l'algorisme de sincronisme. Un cop calculades la distancies relatives als satèl·lits, multiplicant per la velocitat de la llum el retards estimats, l'algorisme de posicionament pot operar. El posicionament es realitza típicament pel procés de trilateralització: intersecció del conjunt d'esferes centrades als satèl·lits visibles i de radi les distancies estimades relatives al receptor GNSS. Així doncs, sincronització i posicionament es realitzen de forma seqüencial i ininterrompudament. La tesi fa contribucions a ambdues parts, com explicita el subtítol del document.Per una banda, la tesi investiga l'ús del filtrat Bayesià en el seguiment dels paràmetres de sincronisme (retards, desviaments Doppler i phases de portadora) del senyal rebut. Una de les fonts de degradació de la precisió en receptors GNSS és la presència de repliques del senyal directe, degudes a rebots en obstacles propers. És per això que els algorismes proposats en aquesta part de la tesi tenen com a objectiu la mitigació de l'efecte multicamí. La dissertació realitza una introducció dels fonaments teòrics del filtrat Bayesià, incloent un recull dels algorismes més populars. En particular, el Filtrat de Partícules (Particle Filter, PF) s'estudia com una de les alternatives més interessants actualment per a enfrontar-se a sistemes no-lineals i/o no-Gaussians. Els PF són mètodes basats en el mètode de Monte Carlo que realitzen una caracterització discreta de la funció de probabilitat a posteriori del sistema. Al contrari d'altres mètodes basats en simulacions, els PF tenen resultats de convergència que els fan especialment atractius en casos on la solució òptima no es pot trobar. En aquest sentit es proposa un PF que incorpora un seguit de característiques que el fan assolir millors prestacions i robustesa que altres algorismes, amb un nombre de partícules reduït. Per una banda, es fa un seguiment dels estats lineals del sistema mitjançant un Filtre de Kalman (KF), procediment conegut com a Rao-Blackwellization. Aquest fet provoca que la variància de les partícules decreixi i que un menor nombre d'elles siguin necessàries per a assolir una certa precisió en l'estimació de la distribució a posteriori. D'altra banda, un dels punts crítics en el disseny de PF és el disseny d'una funció d'importància (emprada per a generar les partícules) similar a l'òptima, que resulta ésser el posterior. Aquesta funció òptima no està disponible en general. En aquesta tesi, es proposa una aproximació de la funció d'importància òptima basada en el mètode de Laplace. Paral·lelament es proposen algorismes com l'Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) i l'Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), comparant-los amb el PF proposat mitjançant simulacions numèriques.Per altra banda, la presentació d'un nou enfocament al problema del posicionament és una de les aportacions originals de la tesi. Si habitualment els receptors operen en dos passos (sincronització i posicionament), la proposta de la tesi rau en l'Estimació Directa de la Posició (Direct Position Estimation, DPE) a partir del senyal digital. Tenint en compte la novetat del mètode, es proporcionen motivacions qualitatives i quantitatives per a l'ús de DPE enfront al mètode convencional de posicionament. Se n'ha estudiat l'estimador de màxima versemblança (Maximum Likelihood, ML) i un algorisme per a la seva implementació pràctica basat en l'algorisme Accelerated Random Search (ARS). Els resultats de les simulacions numèriques mostren la robustesa de DPE a escenaris on el mètode convencional es veu degradat, com per exemple el cas d'escenaris rics en multicamí. Una de les reflexions fruit dels resultats és que l'ús conjunt dels senyals provinents dels satèl·lits visibles proporciona millores en l'estimació de la posició, doncs cada senyal està afectada per un canal de propagació independent. La tesi també presenta l'extensió de DPE dins el marc Bayesià: Bayesian DPE (BDPE). BDPE manté la filosofia de DPE, tot incloent-hi possibles fonts d'informació a priori referents al moviment del receptor. Es comenten algunes de les opcions com l'ús de sistemes de navegació inercials o la inclusió d'informació atmosfèrica. Tot i així, cal tenir en compte que la llista només està limitada per la imaginació i l'aplicació concreta on el marc BDPE s'implementi.Finalment, la tesi els límits teòrics en la precisió dels receptors GNSS. Alguns d'aquests límits teòrics eren ja coneguts, d'altres veuen ara la llum. El límit de Cramér-Rao (Cramér-Rao Bound, CRB) ens prediu la mínima variància que es pot obtenir en estimar un paràmetre mitjançant un estimador no esbiaixat. La tesi recorda el CRB dels paràmetres de sincronisme, resultat ja conegut. Una de les aportacions és la derivació del CRB de l'estimador de la posició pel cas convencional i seguint la metodologia DPE. Aquests resultats proporcionen una comparativa asimptòtica dels dos procediments pel posicionament de receptors GNSS. D'aquesta manera, el CRB de sincronisme pel cas Bayesià (Posterior Cramér-Rao Bound, PCRB) es presenta, com a límit teòric dels filtres Bayesians proposats en la tesi. / This dissertation deals with the design of satellite-based navigation receivers. The term Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) refers to those navigation systems based on a constellation of satellites, which emit ranging signals useful for positioning. Although the american GPS is probably the most popular, the european contribution (Galileo) will be operative soon. Other global and regional systems exist, all with the same objective: aid user's positioning. Initially, the thesis provides the state-of-the-art in GNSS: navigation signals structure and receiver architecture. The design of a GNSS receiver consists of a number of functional blocks. From the antenna to the final position calculation, the design poses challenges in many research areas. Although the Radio Frequency chain of the receiver is commented in the thesis, the main objective of the dissertation is on the signal processing algorithms applied after signal digitation. These algorithms can be divided into two: synchronization and positioning. This classification corresponds to the two main processes typically performed by a GNSS receiver. First, the relative distance between the receiver and the set of visible satellites is estimated. These distances are calculated after estimating the delay suffered by the signal traveling from its emission at the corresponding satellite to its reception at the receiver's antenna. Estimation and tracking of these parameters is performed by the synchronization algorithm. After the relative distances to the satellites are estimated, the positioning algorithm starts its operation. Positioning is typically performed by a process referred to as trilateration: intersection of a set of spheres centered at the visible satellites and with radii the corresponding relative distances. Therefore, synchronization and positioning are processes performed sequentially and in parallel. The thesis contributes to both topics, as expressed by the subtitle of the dissertation.On the one hand, the thesis delves into the use of Bayesian filtering for the tracking of synchronization parameters (time-delays, Doppler-shifts and carrier-phases) of the received signal. One of the main sources of error in high precision GNSS receivers is the presence of multipath replicas apart from the line-of-sight signal (LOSS). Wherefore the algorithms proposed in this part of the thesis aim at mitigating the multipath effect on synchronization estimates. The dissertation provides an introduction to the basics of Bayesian filtering, including a compendium of the most popular algorithms. Particularly, Particle Filters (PF) are studied as one of the promising alternatives to deal with nonlinear/nonGaussian systems. PF are a set of simulation-based algorithms, based on Monte-Carlo methods. PF provide a discrete characterization of the posterior distribution of the system. Conversely to other simulation-based methods, PF are supported by convergence results which make them attractive in cases where the optimal solution cannot be analytically found. In that vein, a PF that incorporates a set of features to enhance its performance and robustness with a reduced number of particles is proposed. First, the linear part of the system is optimally handled by a Kalman Filter (KF), procedure referred to as Rao-Blackwellization. The latter causes a reduction on the variance of the particles and, thus, a reduction on the number of required particles to attain a given accuracy when characterizing the posterior distribution. A second feature is the design of an importance density function (from which particles are generated) close to the optimal, not available in general. The selection of this function is typically a key issue in PF designs. The dissertation proposes an approximation of the optimal importance function using Laplace's method. In parallel, Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithms are considered, comparing these algorithms with the proposed PF by computer simulations.On the other hand, a novel point of view in the positioning problem constitutes one of the original contributions of the thesis. Whereas conventional receivers operate in a two-steps procedure (synchronization and positioning), the proposal of the thesis is a Direct Position Estimation (DPE) from the digitized signal. Considering the novelty of the approach, the dissertation provides both qualitative and quantitative motivations for the use of DPE instead of the conventional two-steps approach. DPE is studied following the Maximum Likelihood (ML) principle and an algorithm based on the Accelerated Random Search (ARS) is considered for a practical implementation of the derived estimator. Computer simulation results carried show the robustness of DPE in scenarios where the conventional approach fails, for instance in multipath-rich scenarios. One of the conclusions of the thesis is that joint processing of satellite's signals provides enhance positioning performances, due to the independent propagation channels between satellite links. The dissertation also presents the extension of DPE to the Bayesian framework: Bayesian DPE (BDPE). BDPE maintains DPE's philosophy, including the possibility of accounting for sources of side/prior information. Some examples are given, such as the use of Inertial Measurement Systems and atmospheric models. Nevertheless, we have to keep in mind that the list is only limited by imagination and the particular applications were BDPE is implemented. Finally, the dissertation studied the theoretical lower bounds of accuracy of GNSS receivers. Some of those limits were already known, others see the light as a result of the research reported in the dissertation. The Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) is the theoretical lower bound of accuracy of any unbiased estimator of a parameter. The dissertation recalls the CRB of synchronization parameters, result already known. A novel contribution ofthe thesis is the derivation of the CRB of the position estimator for either conventional and DPE approaches. These results provide an asymptotical comparison of both GNSS positioning approaches. Similarly, the CRB of synchronization parameters for the Bayesian case (Posterior Cramér-Rao Bound, PCRB) is given, used as a fundamental limit of the Bayesian filters proposed in the thesis.

The work focuses on the application of satellite navigation systems in the different transport fields. It describes the general principle of operation of navigation systems, as well as its history and development. The following section describes the current navigation systems, the principle of operation, architecture and services. A separate chapter is devoted to being the European Galileo system and its services. Practical work deals with the applications according to the navigation systems across different transport sectors. In addition to the transport sector are given applications in other areas of human activity. The main part is devoted to the application in the monitoring and management of the company's fleet. Part of the analysis is the calculation of the efficiency of this investment.

This piece of Master's thesis deals with basic means of navigation, with emphases on satellite navigation and mobile phone navigation. It explains the signal receiving principals, global positioning and how it works with particular devices. It also covers information of how to convert data using various programs. And finally it shows the results of practical verification of the accuracy in locating position, altitude, azimuth and speed by using the navigation.