Integrity monitoring method for navigation systems with heterogeneous measurements

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for implementing an integrity monitoring of heterogeneous navigation measurements for navigation systems, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a processor-readable medium on which program instructions are embodied, wherein the program instructions are operable, when executed by at least one processor in a navigation system, to cause the navigation system to:

• categorize received measurements from a plurality of different type navigation aiding sensors used for navigation of a vehicle into integrity monitoring classes by an information domain, an aiding class and an aiding section, wherein the information domain is a category of at least measurements sorted in groups by physical quantity, wherein the aiding class is a category sorted in groups by physical methods used to acquire the measurements, wherein the aiding section is a category of the measurements sorted in groups by navigation aiding sources providing the measurements;
• organize the measurements into a plurality of measurement clusters based at least in part on at least one of measurement fault modes to be detected, measurement fault modes to be excluded and available computer resources for each integrity monitoring class as well as the categorization of the measurements by the information domain, the aiding class and the aiding section;
• and
• apply an integrity monitoring algorithm to the measurement clusters to determine an integrity solution for all defined integrity monitoring classes, determining the integrity solution including,
• process all measurements by a statistical full-solution filter to determine a full navigation solution estimate,
• process all the measurements by statistical sub-solution filters to determine a set of navigation sub-solution estimates, each statistical sub-solution filter generating an associated navigation sub-solution estimate using measurements from all but one measurement cluster of the plurality of measurement clusters,
• the subset having a selected structure within the measurement clusters,
• assess correlations between the full navigation solution estimate and the set of navigation sub-solution estimates, and
• using the assessed correlations between the full navigation solution estimate and the set of navigation sub-solution estimates to provide at least one of fault detection and exclusion functionality.

A system having an integrity monitoring function of heterogeneous navigation measurements, the system comprising:

• at least one input to receive navigation related measurement information from a plurality of different sensors used for navigation of a vehicle;
• at least one memory to store at least one statistical filter and at least one integrity function;
• at least one processor in communication with the at least one input and the at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to execute the at least one filter and at least one integrity function in processing the received navigation related measurement information from the plurality of different sources to determine the integrity of the received navigation related measurement information, the at least one processor configured to categorize measurements from the navigation related measurement information into integrity monitoring classes by an information domain, an aiding class and an aiding section, wherein the information domain is a category of at least measurements sorted in groups by physical quantity, wherein the aiding class is a category sorted in groups by physical methods used to acquire the measurements, wherein the aiding section is a category of measurements sorted in groups by navigation aiding sources proving the measurements, the at least one processor further configured to organize the measurements into a plurality of measurement clusters based at least in part on measurement fault modes to be detected, measurement fault modes to be excluded and available computer resources as well as the categorization of the measurements by the information domain, the aiding class and the aiding section, the at least one processor based on the execution of the at least one integrity function configured to apply an integrity monitoring algorithm to the measurement clusters to determine an integrity solution for all defined integrity monitoring classes, wherein determining the integrity solution includes,
• the at least one statistical filter including a full-solution filter configured to process all measurements to determine a full navigation solution estimate, the at least one statistical filter further including a sub-solution filter configured to process all measurements to determine a set of navigation sub-solution estimates, each sub-solution filter generating an associated navigation sub-solution estimate using measurements from all measurement clusters but one measurement cluster from the plurality of measurement clusters, the at least one processor is further configured to implement an algorithm to assess correlations between the full navigation solution and the set of sub navigation solutions and use the assessed correlations between the full navigation solution estimate and the set of navigation sub-solution estimates to provide at least one of fault detection and exclusion functionality.