Positioning process and system thereof

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface, which is a parallel digital signal interface, for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems, wherein said interface is connected with said centralized navigation Kalman filter to realize communication with said avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface, which is a network adapter, for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems, wherein said interface is connected with said centralized navigation Kalman filter to realize communication with said avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface, which is a bus interface, for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems, wherein said interface is connected with said centralized navigation Kalman filter to realize communication with said avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit, which is a pulse/counter-based circuit for adapting said IMU with pulse output, for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices, wherein said IMU data sampling circuit is connected with said centralized navigation Kalman filter and said time synchronizer.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said OPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit, which is an A/D converter-based circuit for adapting said IMU with analog output, for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices, wherein said IMU data sampling circuit is connected with said centralized navigation Kalman filter and said time synchronizer.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices,
• wherein said architecture of said connection among said GPS digital processing unit, said centralized navigation Kalman filter, said interface, said IMU data sampling circuit and said time synchronizer is a bus-based connection structure.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices,
• wherein said architecture of said connection among said GPS digital processing unit, said centralized navigation Kalman filter, said interface, said IMU data sampling circuit and said time synchronizer is a communication port-based connection structure.

A positioning system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) unit for receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals, amplifying said GPS RF signals and down converting said GPS RF signals into intermediate frequency (IF) signals;
• a GPS digital signal processing unit for sampling said IF signal and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements;
• an IMU data sampling unit for collecting angular rate and acceleration measurements of said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• a centralized navigation Kalman filter for receiving and processing said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements for said GPS and said angular rate and acceleration measurements from said IMU;
• at least an interface for realizing said data and control communication with other avionics systems;
• and
• a time synchronizer for providing said time signal and local reference signal to said avionics system devices,
• wherein said architecture of said connection among said GPS digital processing unit, said centralized navigation Kalman filter, said interface, said IMU data sampling circuit and said time synchronizer is a network-based connection structure.

A positioning process for a vehicle, comprising said steps of:

• (a) accepting angular rate and acceleration measurements for said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to form an initial value and computing said initial value according to inertial navigation equations of said inertial measurement unit, and accepting vehicle position, velocity, and attitude measurements from at least an external sensor, and that said inertial measurement unit is a tactical munition inertial measurement unit installed on a launch platform, wherein measurements or navigation parameters of said tactical munition inertial measurement unit and said launch platform inertial measurement unit are filtered by an alignment filter to provide optimal initialization information to said tactical munition inertial measurement unit;
• (b) receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements from said global positioning system radio frequency signals;
• (c) receiving said angular rate and acceleration information from said inertial measurement unit and solving said inertial navigation measurements of said inertial measurement unit to obtain a navigation solution which includes position, velocity, and attitude;
• and
• (d) combining said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements, and said navigation solution to obtain a fully-coupled positioning solution.

A positioning process for a vehicle, comprising said steps of:

• (a) accepting angular rate and acceleration measurements for said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to form an initial value and computing said initial value according to inertial navigation equations of said inertial measurement unit;
• (b) receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements from said global positioning system radio frequency signals;
• (c) receiving said angular rate and acceleration information from said inertial measurement unit and solving said inertial navigation measurements of said inertial measurement unit to obtain a navigation solution which includes position, velocity, and attitude;
• and
• (d) combining said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements, and said navigation solution to obtain a fully-coupled positioning solution, wherein said GPS pseudorange, delta range and carrier phase measurements, and said inertial navigation solution are combined by an integrated Kalman filters.

A positioning process for a vehicle, comprising said steps of:

• (a) accepting angular rate and acceleration measurements for said vehicle from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to form an initial value and computing said initial value according to inertial navigation equations of said inertial measurement unit;
• (b) receiving global positioning system (GPS) radio frequency (RF) signals and deriving GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements from said global positioning system radio frequency signals;
• (c) receiving said angular rate and acceleration information from said inertial measurement unit and solving said inertial navigation measurements of said inertial measurement unit to obtain a navigation solution which includes position, velocity, and attitude;
• and
• (d) combining said GPS pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase measurements, and said navigation solution to obtain a fully-coupled positioning solution, wherein GPS pseudorange, delta range and carrier phase measurements, and said inertial navigation solution are combined by a multi-mode robust Kalman filter which comprises at least one of said following operation modes:
• a GPS/INS P-V (position and velocity) integration mode;
• a GPS/IMU ρ/Δν+Δθ (pseudorange and delta range) integration mode without aiding of GPS tracking loops;
• a GPS/IMU ρ/Δν+Δθ (pseudorange and delta range) integration mode with aiding of GPS tracking loops;
• a GPS/IMU ρ+φ/Δν+Δθ (pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase) integration mode without aiding of GPS tracking loops;
• and
• a GPS/IMU ρ+φ/Δν+Δθ (pseudorange, delta range, and carrier phase) integration mode with aiding of GPS tracking loops.