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Air Force Institute of Technology

Theses and Dissertations

Global Positioning System

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Electromagnetic Interference Estimation Via Conditional Neural Processing, Edgar E. Gomez Dec 2020

Electromagnetic Interference Estimation Via Conditional Neural Processing, Edgar E. Gomez

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to determine the efficacy of employing Machine Learning (ML) to solve Joint Urgent Operational Need (JUON) CC-0575, which aims to develop a Common Operating Picture (COP) of the Global Positioning System (GPS) Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) environment. With the growing popularity of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), ML solutions are quickly gaining traction in businesses, academia and government. This in turn allows for problem solutions that were previously inconceivable using the classical programming paradigm. This thesis proposes a method to develop a COP of the battlefield via ANN ingestion of multiple-source signals and sensors. We conduct …


Signal Quality Monitoring Of Gnss Signals Using A Chip Shape Deformation Metric, Nicholas C. Echeverry Mar 2020

Signal Quality Monitoring Of Gnss Signals Using A Chip Shape Deformation Metric, Nicholas C. Echeverry

Theses and Dissertations

The Global Navigation Satellite System continues to become deeply em-bedded within modern civilization, and is depended on for confident, accurate navigation information. High precision position and timing accuracy is typically achieved using differential processing, however these systems provide limited compensation for distortions caused by multi-path or faulty satellite hardware. Signal Quality Monitoring (SQM) aims to provide confidence in a receivers Position, Navigation, and Timing solution and to offer timely warnings in the event that signal conditions degrade to unsafe levels. The methods presented in this document focus on implementing effective SQM using low-cost Commercial Off-the-Shelf equipment, a Software Defined Radio, …


Characterization Of Quad-Copter Positioning Systems And The Effect Of Pose Uncertainties On Field Probe Measurements, James C. Dossett Mar 2016

Characterization Of Quad-Copter Positioning Systems And The Effect Of Pose Uncertainties On Field Probe Measurements, James C. Dossett

Theses and Dissertations

When measuring the Radar Cross Section (RCS) of a test object, many uncertainties must be accounted for, such as the non-homogeneous nature of the medium between the radar test equipment and the platform under test. There are a variety of other error sources, including clutter and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), motivating the development of techniques to measure and model the uncertainties in RCS measurements. The following research, in unison with prior and current efforts, intends to reduce the impact of these uncertainties by utilizing a unique two-way field probe in the form of a geodesic sphere encompassing a commercial quad-copter …


The Effects Of Cognitive Jamming On Wireless Sensor Networks Used For Geolocation, Michael A. Huffman Mar 2012

The Effects Of Cognitive Jamming On Wireless Sensor Networks Used For Geolocation, Michael A. Huffman

Theses and Dissertations

The increased use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for geolocation has led to an increased reliance on this technology. Jamming, protecting jamming, and detecting jamming in a WSN are areas of study that have greatly increased in interest. This research uses simulations and data collected from hardware experiments to test the effects of jamming on a WSN. Hardware jamming was tested using a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) Version 2 to assess the effects of jamming on a cooperative network of Java Sun SPOTs. The research combines simulations and data collected from the hardware experiments to see the effects of …


Augmenting The Global Positioning System With Foreign Navigation Systems And Alternative Sensors, Christopher B. Killion Mar 2012

Augmenting The Global Positioning System With Foreign Navigation Systems And Alternative Sensors, Christopher B. Killion

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Global Positioning System (GPS), with its great accuracy, receives extensive use by civilians and military organizations throughout the world. However, in areas with limited or partially obstructed views of the sky, such as amongst tall buildings or imposing geographic features, a position solution can be difficult or impossible to obtain as the limited view of the sky decreases the number of visible satellites. Augmenting the GPS constellation by receiving signals from foreign satellite navigation systems as well as using measurements from inertial and barometric sensors can increase the availability of a position solution in a degraded reception …


Global Navigation Satellite System Software Defined Radio, Jason M. Mcginthy Mar 2010

Global Navigation Satellite System Software Defined Radio, Jason M. Mcginthy

Theses and Dissertations

The GNSS world is quickly growing. The United States’ GPS, the European Union’s Galileo, China’s Compass, and Russia’s GLONASS systems are all developing or modernizing their signals, and there will soon be more navigation satellites in space than ever before. The goal of this research was to develop an initial capability for an AFIT GNSS software receiver. This software receiver is intended to be used for research purposes at the Advanced Navigation Technology (ANT) Center. First a GPS-only software receiver was built. It successfully acquired, tracked, and provided reasonable position estimates. Next, the receiver was successfully modified to acquire and …


Aiding Gps With Additional Satellite Navigation Services, Yasin A. Mutlu Mar 2010

Aiding Gps With Additional Satellite Navigation Services, Yasin A. Mutlu

Theses and Dissertations

In modern warfare navigation services are very important. GPS is currently providing service for accurate navigation, except in some areas, especially urban areas, where GPS signals cannot always be tracked by users. In these cases some additional navigation support could be provided by other global navigation satellite systems. If GPS is combined with other navigation systems than the navigation gap will be minor. In this thesis, the effect of combining GPS with other satellite navigation systems, specifically GLONASS, Galileo and Compass, is evaluated in terms of availability and position dilution of precision (PDOP) values. First, satellite constellations are simulated in …


Failure Detection Of A Pseudolite-Based Reference System Using Residual Monitoring, Michael A. Ciampa Mar 2009

Failure Detection Of A Pseudolite-Based Reference System Using Residual Monitoring, Michael A. Ciampa

Theses and Dissertations

The 746th TS uses a flight reference system referred to as the Central Inertial and GPS Test Facility (CIGTF) Reference System (CRS). Currently the CRS is the modern standard flight reference system for navigation testing, but high accuracy is dependent on the availability of GPS. A pseudolite system is currently being developed to augment the CRS and supply the capability to maintain high accuracy navigation under normal and jamming conditions. Pseudolite measurements typically contain cycle slips and other errors (such as multipath, tropospheric error, measurement noise) that can affect reliability. Past work relied on the receiver-reported signal-to-noise (SNR) value to …


Fusion Of Imaging And Inertial Sensors For Navigation, Michael J. Veth Sep 2006

Fusion Of Imaging And Inertial Sensors For Navigation, Michael J. Veth

Theses and Dissertations

The motivation of this research is to address the limitations of satellite-based navigation by fusing imaging and inertial systems. The research begins by rigorously describing the imaging and navigation problem and developing practical models of the sensors, then presenting a transformation technique to detect features within an image. Given a set of features, a statistical feature projection technique is developed which utilizes inertial measurements to predict vectors in the feature space between images. This coupling of the imaging and inertial sensors at a deep level is then used to aid the statistical feature matching function. The feature matches and inertial …


Characterizing The Impact Of Precision Time And Range Measurements From Two-Way Time Transfer Systems On Network Differential Gps Position Solutions, Kendra L. B. Cook Mar 2006

Characterizing The Impact Of Precision Time And Range Measurements From Two-Way Time Transfer Systems On Network Differential Gps Position Solutions, Kendra L. B. Cook

Theses and Dissertations

Precise positioning plays an important role for both military and civilian users, from cell phones and OnStar to precision munitions and swarms of UAVs. Many applications require precise relative positioning of a network of vehicles (such as aircraft, tanks, troops, etc). Currently, the primary means for performing precise positioning is by using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and although GPS has become commonplace in today’s society, there are still limitations affecting the system. Recent advances in dynamic Two-Way Time Transfer (TWTT) have potentially provided a means to improve precise relative positioning accuracy over differential GPS (DGPS)-only approaches. TWTT is a …


A Climatological Study Of Equatorial Gps Data And The Effects On Ionospheric Scintillation, Katharine A. Wicker Mar 2006

A Climatological Study Of Equatorial Gps Data And The Effects On Ionospheric Scintillation, Katharine A. Wicker

Theses and Dissertations

Ionospheric scintillation is detrimental to radio signals, especially those from the global positioning system. Such scintillation is caused when a signal permeates the ionosphere through plasma bubbles. The signal’s phase and amplitude can be altered, and a receiver on the ground can lose lock on the GPS signal. Measured using a zero to one index known as S4, scintillation severity is based upon season, solar cycle, time of day, location and frequency. The most severe scintillation occurs at the equatorial anomaly, or fifteen degrees north and south of the equator. Seven years of data from fifteen different locations around the …


Characterization Of Binary Offset Carrier (Boc) Systems Coexisting With Other Wideband Signals, John M. Hedenberg Dec 2005

Characterization Of Binary Offset Carrier (Boc) Systems Coexisting With Other Wideband Signals, John M. Hedenberg

Theses and Dissertations

Results for modeling, simulation, and analysis of interference effects that modern interfering signals have on the system performance of the Binary Offset Carrier (BOC) signals, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) Military System (M-Code signal) are addressed in this work. Three signals are addressed as potential interferers. These include the current GPS clear/acquisition code (C/A-Code) signal, the current GPS precision code (P-Code) signal, and an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) signal. All of these potential interferers are modeled as coexisting within the same bandwidth as the M-Code signal. Interference effects are characterized by comparing the bit error performance of …


The Use Of X-Ray Pulsars For Aiding Gps Satellite Orbit Determination, Dennis W. Woodfork Ii Mar 2005

The Use Of X-Ray Pulsars For Aiding Gps Satellite Orbit Determination, Dennis W. Woodfork Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes the use of an existing "signal of opportunity" - namely x-ray pulsars - to improve the accuracy and robustness of the GPS satellite and clock estimation algorithm. Improvement in satellite and clock accuracy results in a direct benefit to the user. A simulation has been developed to determine the effects of using x-ray pulsar measurements on the GPS Operational Control Segment. The epoch-specific position, velocity, and clock errors of all GPS satellites in the constellation were estimated using both pseudoranges and time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) measurements from pulsars. The primary measure of accuracy is a constellation Signal-In-Space Range Error …


Head Tracking For 3d Audio Using A Gps-Aided Mems Imu, Jacque M. Joffrion Mar 2005

Head Tracking For 3d Audio Using A Gps-Aided Mems Imu, Jacque M. Joffrion

Theses and Dissertations

Audio systems have been developed which use stereo headphones to project sound in three dimensions. When using these 3D audio systems, audio cues sound like they are originating from a particular direction. There is a desire to apply 3D audio to general aviation applications, such as projecting control tower transmissions in the direction of the tower or providing an audio orientation cue for VFR pilots who find themselves in emergency zero-visibility conditions. 3D audio systems, however, require real-time knowledge of the pilot's head orientation in order to be effective. This research describes the development and testing of a low-cost head …


Ultra Wide Band Signal Modeling For Radar Receiver Characterization, Robert J. Backscheider Dec 2004

Ultra Wide Band Signal Modeling For Radar Receiver Characterization, Robert J. Backscheider

Theses and Dissertations

Results for modeling, simulation, and analysis of interference effects that modern wideband signals have on existing narrowband radar system performance are presented. In particular, radar detection performance is characterized using a basic radar receiver model and operational parameters consistent with those of the ARSR-4 air route surveillance radar. Two modern wideband signals (interferers) are addressed in this work, including the GPS military signal (M-Code signal) and a direct sequence ultra wideband (DS-UWB) waveform meeting outdoor emission restrictions imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Interference effects are characterized for an unmodulated sinusoidal pulse as well as linear frequency modulated (LFM) …


A Tightly-Coupled Ins/Gps Integration Using A Mems Imu, Jonathan M. Neu Sep 2004

A Tightly-Coupled Ins/Gps Integration Using A Mems Imu, Jonathan M. Neu

Theses and Dissertations

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology holds great promise for future navigation systems because of the reduced size and cost of MEMS inertial sensors relative to conventional devices. Current MEMS devices are much less accurate than standard inertial sensors, but they can still be useful. In this thesis, data was recorded from an inexpensive MEMS inertial measurement unit and integrated with GPS measurements using a tightly-coupled Kalman filter. The overall goal of this research is to investigate the usefulness of MEMS sensors for a small, real-time, low-cost INS/GPS integration. A golf cart was used to collect dynamic data, along with a commercial …


Geolocation Of An Audio Source In A Multipath Environment Using Time-Of-Arrival, Jeffrey A. Boggs Mar 2004

Geolocation Of An Audio Source In A Multipath Environment Using Time-Of-Arrival, Jeffrey A. Boggs

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force and the Department of Defense (DoD) are continually searching for ways to protect U.S. forces, both stateside and abroad. One continuing threat, especially in the current world environment, is gunfire from an unseen sniper. Designated areas, such as a forward deployed base or motorcade route, need to be continuously monitored for sniper fire. Once detected, these gunmen need to be located in real time. One possible method for accomplishing this task is to geolocate the audio signals generated using time-of-arrival (TOA) algorithms. These algorithms rely on direct-path measurements for accuracy. Multipath environments therefore pose a problem when …


Using The Gps To Improve Trajectory Position And Velocity Determination During Real-Time Ejection Seat Design, Test And Evaluation, Christina G. Schutte Mar 2003

Using The Gps To Improve Trajectory Position And Velocity Determination During Real-Time Ejection Seat Design, Test And Evaluation, Christina G. Schutte

Theses and Dissertations

Test and evaluation of the United States Air Force’s latest aircraft escape system technology requires accurate position and velocity profiles during each test to determine the relative positions between the aircraft, ejection seat, manikin and the ground. Current rocket sled testing relies on expensive ground based multiple camera systems to determine the position and velocity profiles. While these systems are satisfactory at determining seat and manikin trajectories for sled testing, their accuracy decreases when they are used for in-flight testing, especially at high altitudes. This research presents the design and test results from a new GPS-based system capable of monitoring …


The Effects Of Gps M-Code On Radar Detection, Jae K. Yang Mar 2003

The Effects Of Gps M-Code On Radar Detection, Jae K. Yang

Theses and Dissertations

The GPS system is undergoing a modernization effort which will add several new signals to be placed at the L1, L2, and L5 frequency bands. One of the signals to be placed on L2 is a new military code (M-code) which may be transmitted at a higher power level than current GPS signals. Other users of the L2 frequency band are concerned with the potential interference that may be caused by the increase in power of the GPS signal. One particular use of the 1215-1400 MHz frequency band is Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar applications.


Development And Testing Of A Multiple Filter Approach For Precise Dgps Positioning And Carrier-Phase Ambiguity Resolution, Paul E. Henderson Mar 2001

Development And Testing Of A Multiple Filter Approach For Precise Dgps Positioning And Carrier-Phase Ambiguity Resolution, Paul E. Henderson

Theses and Dissertations

The most precise relative positioning obtained using differential GPS depends on accurately determining carrier-phase integer ambiguities. To achieve high precision, many current static and kinematic algorithms use a floating-point solution until enough information becomes available to fix the carrier-phase ambiguities accurately. A mew method is presented that uses a multiple model Kalman filter to resolve the carrier-phase integer ambiguities. This method starts with the floating-point results, yet smoothly and rapidly attains the precision of the correct fixed-integer solution, eliminating the need to decide when to switch from the floating to the fixed-integer solution. This method is based on a theoretically …


Using Gps As A Reference System To Hit A Moving Target, Daryl J. Burnette Mar 2001

Using Gps As A Reference System To Hit A Moving Target, Daryl J. Burnette

Theses and Dissertations

The Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement (AMSTE) project attempts to develop affordable solutions to the precise moving target surface target engagement problem. Up to this point, most of the error analysis performed for the AMSTE project has been at the error variance level, generating root-sum-square (RSS) total errors from error budgets consisting of constant error variances. In reality, the level of error for both Global Positioning System (GPS) positioning and radar targeting systems is highly dependent upon the given situation (such as the distance between sensor and target, the altitude differences, etc.) This research generates a more comprehensive model of …


Evaluation Of A Method For Kinematic Gps Carrier-Phase Ambiguity Resolution Using A Network Of Reference Receivers, Brian L. Bracy Mar 2000

Evaluation Of A Method For Kinematic Gps Carrier-Phase Ambiguity Resolution Using A Network Of Reference Receivers, Brian L. Bracy

Theses and Dissertations

New applications for GPS have driven a demand for increased positioning accuracy. The emerging GPS technology particularly affects the test community. The testing equipment and method must provide a solution that is an order of magnitude more precise than the tested equipment to achieve the desired accuracy. Carrier-phase differential GPS methods using a network of reference receivers can provide the centimeter-level accuracy required over a large geographical area. This thesis evaluates the performance of a 5-receiver network over a 50 km x 120 km area of New Mexico, using a GPS network algorithm called NetAdjust. The percentage of time a …


Development Of A Real Time Guidance System For A Kinematic Test Vehicle, Orhan Cekic Mar 2000

Development Of A Real Time Guidance System For A Kinematic Test Vehicle, Orhan Cekic

Theses and Dissertations

Differential carrier phase GPS measurements are capable of giving centimeter-level accuracies. These accuracies have many potential applications for safety and control of various types of vehicles. For this research, a real-time guidance system is developed. The real-time guidance system can be divided into two components: hardware and software. The hardware component consists of two GPS receivers (one base, one mobile), two wireless 115 Kbaud transceivers, and two laptop computers. One computer is for the reference station and other is for the mobile receiver interface and graphical display. The guided vehicle is a golf car called the Remote Sensing Autonomous Vehicle …


Design And Validation Of An Accurate Gps Signal And Receiver Truth Model For Comparing Advanced Receiver Processing Techniques, Phillip Martin Corbell Mar 2000

Design And Validation Of An Accurate Gps Signal And Receiver Truth Model For Comparing Advanced Receiver Processing Techniques, Phillip Martin Corbell

Theses and Dissertations

Recent increases in the computational power of computers and digital signal processors have made possible new, novel signal tracking techniques in GPS receivers. One such technique is known as Direct Correlators Output Processing (DCOP). This technique replaces individual traditional tracking loops with a single Kalman Filter, which jointly processes the received signals while exploiting their correlated noises. DCOP is innovative in its potential to replace the tried and true classical signal tracking loops. It is also an enabling technology for ultra-tightly coupled GPS/INS (Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System). Potential benefits of these new tracking techniques include an order-of-magnitude improvement in …


Analysis Of Radio Frequency Interference Effects On A Modern Coarse Acquisition Code Global Positioning System (Gps) Receiver, Kenneth D. Johnston Mar 1999

Analysis Of Radio Frequency Interference Effects On A Modern Coarse Acquisition Code Global Positioning System (Gps) Receiver, Kenneth D. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the performance of a twelve channel Standard Positioning Service (SPS) based (Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver using an eight state Kalman filter in a hostile radio frequency (RF) environment and to develop instructional tools for teaching RF interference on GPS receivers. The two types of jamming signals generated included Continuous Wave (CW) and Swept CW. Actual GPS and jamming signals were used in the research. The signals received from GPS satellites exhibit a Doppler shift which vary between approximately plus six Kilohertz. The Doppler shift frequency can be reasonably predicted for a …


Global Positioning System (Gps) Receiver Design For Multipaths Mitigation, El-Sayed Abdel-Salam Gadallah Aug 1998

Global Positioning System (Gps) Receiver Design For Multipaths Mitigation, El-Sayed Abdel-Salam Gadallah

Theses and Dissertations

Multipath effects are a source of error degrading the accuracy of DGPS signal processing. The statistical models of multipath are determined by user location and, in addition are time varying. There is no unified statistical model for the multipath signal. Therefore the solution of the multipath problem using statistical models is difficult. This research introduces a new estimator that can detect the presence of multipath, can determine the unknown number of multipath components and can estimate multipath parameters in the GPS receiver (time delay and attenuation coefficients). Furthermore the multipath signal parameters are estimated at any instant of observation. The …


Optimization Of A Gps-Based Navigation Reference System, Jason B. Mckay Dec 1996

Optimization Of A Gps-Based Navigation Reference System, Jason B. Mckay

Theses and Dissertations

The development of increasingly accurate new aircraft navigation systems has caused the Air Force to develop a new Navigation Reference System to test them, called the Submeter Accuracy Reference System (SARS). The SARS is an inverted GPS system which consists of an array of GPS receivers on the ground and an airborne pseudolite mounted on the test aircraft. The SARS will provide a proof position estimate that is used to check the navigation system under test. Unfortunately, ground based inverted GPS systems tend to suffer from high geometric sensitivity to measurement errors. This research tackles the problem of optimizing the …


An Integrated Gps-Ins-Baro And Radar Altimeter System For Aircraft Precision Approach Landings, Robert A. Gray Dec 1994

An Integrated Gps-Ins-Baro And Radar Altimeter System For Aircraft Precision Approach Landings, Robert A. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the commercial airline industry are utilizing the Instrument Landing System (ILS) during aircraft landings for precision approaches. The replacement system for the aging ILS was thought to he the Microwave Landing System (MLS). Instead, use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) is now thought to be a viable replacement for ILS precision approaches. The majority of current precision landing research has exploited 'stand-alone' GPS receiver techniques. This thesis instead explores the possibilities of using an extended Kalman filter (EKF) that integrates an Inertial Navigation System (INS), GPS, Barometric Altimeter, Pseudolite and Radar Altimeter …


The Enhanced Performance Of An Integrated Navigation System In A Highly Dynamic Environment, Brian J. Bohenek Dec 1994

The Enhanced Performance Of An Integrated Navigation System In A Highly Dynamic Environment, Brian J. Bohenek

Theses and Dissertations

For the U.S. Air Force to maintain an accurate and reliable Navigation Reference System (NRS) with Carrier-Phase Global Positioning System (CPGPS) measurements, it must develop an accurate and robust NRS in the face of cycle slips caused by highly dynamic maneuvers. This research investigates the implementation of a double differencing between receivers-satellites scheme to improve the accuracy of current NRS models. The removal of the 'perfect Doppler velocity aiding measurements' (a very poor assumption of past research) was completed with stable and accurate results. The double differencing implemented showed improvement in the accuracy of the NRS. An investigation of two …


The Design And Analysis Of Integrated Navigation Systems Using Real Ins And Gps Data, Curtis D. Evans Dec 1994

The Design And Analysis Of Integrated Navigation Systems Using Real Ins And Gps Data, Curtis D. Evans

Theses and Dissertations

An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is used to combine the information obtained from a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and an Inertial Navigation System (INS) to provide a navigation solution. This research compares the results of an actual tightly-coupled GPS-INS integrated system with those obtained in computer simulation. Differences between the simulation and actual hardware results, such as navigation solutions and tuning values, are shown in the research. An analysis of various GPS models was studied to determine the best representation for a system truth model. Measurement updates and their effects upon position accuracies was considered and preliminary research was …