Integrating GPS/INS/PL for Robust Positioning: The Challenging Issues

The Global Positioning System (GPS), Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Pseudolite (PL) technologies all play very important roles in navigation systems. As an independent navigation system, GPS can provide high precision positioning results which are independent of time. However, the performance will become unreliable when the system experiences high dynamics, or when the receiver is exposed to jamming or RF interference. In comparison to GPS, though INS is autonomous and provides good short-term accuracy, its use as a standalone navigation system is limited due to the time-dependent growth of the inertial sensor errors. PLs are ground-based transmitters that can transmit GPS-like signals. They have some advantages in that their positions can be determined precisely, and the Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR) are relatively high. Because their combined performance, in principle, overcomes the shortcomings of the individual systems, the integration of GPS, INS and PL is increasingly receiving attention from researchers. Depending on the desired performance vs complexity, system integration can be carried out at different levels, namely loose, tight and ultra-tight coupling. Compared with loose and tight integration, although it is more complex in terms of system design, ultra-tight integration will be the basis of the next generation of reliable and robust navigation systems. Its main advantages include improved performance under exposure to high dynamics, and jamming and RF interference mitigation. This paper presents an overview of the ultra-tight integration developments and discusses some of the challenging issues.