Analysis of Pseudolite Augmentation for Vessel Berthing

GPS has been increasingly exploited to provide positioning and navigation solutions for a variety of applications. In vessel berthing application, however, there are stringent requirements in terms of positioning accuracy, availability and integrity that cannot be satisfied by GPS alone. This is because the performance of satellite-based positioning and navigation systems are heavily dependent on both the number and the geometric distribution of satellite tracked by receivers. Due to the limited number of GPS satellites, a sufficient number of ‘visible’ satellites cannot be sometimes guaranteed. This paper discusses some issues associated with the implementation of ground-based pseudolite augmentation for vessel berthing. Pseudolite means small transmitter that transmits GPS-like signals in local area. Actually, pseudolite can play three different roles in GPS augmentation scheme, depending on the operational conditions. Firstly, in the case of kinematic GPS operation where there are no signal blockages, and more than five satellites are available, additional pseudolites strengthen the GPS satellite-pseudolite geometry, and more accurate and reliable positioning solution can be achieved. Secondly, in the case when there are adverse GPS operational environments in which the number of tracked satellites is less than four, pseudolites can complement the GPS signals. In the third case, GPS signals are completely unavailable, such as when operated indoor. In such cases the pseudolites can replace the satellite constellation. However, the first role will be considered in this paper, since more than four satellite signals can usually be tracked in most marine applications. This paper presents that the pseudolite-augmented precise positioning system can provides continuous centimeter-level positioning accuracy through comparison analysis of RDOP simulation result of the GPS satellite constellation and the pseudolite-augmented GPS satellite constellation.