Design Cutting-Edge Aided Navigation Systems for Advanced Commercial & Military Applications Aided Navigation is a design-oriented textbook and guide to building aided navigation systems for smart cars, precision farming vehicles, smart weapons, unmanned aircraft, mobile robots, and other advanced applications. The navigation guide contains two parts explaining the essential theory, concepts, and tools, as well as the methodology in aided navigation case studies with sufficient detail to serve as the basis for application-oriented analysis and design. Filled with detailed illustrations and examples, this expert design tool takes you step-by-step through coordinate systems, deterministic and stochastic modeling, optimal estimation, and navigation system design. Authoritative and comprehensive, Aided Navigation features: End-of-chapter exercises throughout Part I In-depth case studies of aided navigation systems Numerous Matlab-based examples Appendices define notation, review linear algebra, and discuss GPS receiver interfacing Source code and sensor data to support examples is available through the publisher-supported website Inside this Complete Guide to Designing Aided Navigation Systems • Aided Navigation Theory: Introduction to Aided Navigation • Coordinate Systems • Deterministic Modeling • Stochastic Modeling • Optimal Estimation • Navigation System Design • Navigation Case Studies: Global Positioning System (GPS) • GPS-Aided Encoder • Attitude and Heading Reference System • GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) • Acoustic Ranging and Doppler-Aided INS

This is the first book on the topic of all source positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) and how to solve the problem of PNT when the most widely-used measurement source available today, the GPS system, may be come unavailable, jammed or spoofed. Readers learn how to define the system architecture as well as the algorithms for GPS-denied and GPS-challenged PNT systems. In addition, the book provides comprehensive coverage of the individual technologies used, such as celestial navigation, vision-based navigation, terrain referenced navigation, gravity anomaly referenced navigation, signal of opportunity (SOO) based PNT, and collaborative PNT. Celestial Navigation is discussed, with stars and satellite used as reference, and star-tracker technology also included. Propagation based timing solutions are explored and the basic principles of oscillators and clocks presented. Initial alignment of strap-down navigation systems is explored, including initial alignment as a Kalman filter problem. Velocimeter/Dead reckoning based navigation and its impact on visual odometry is also explained. Covering both theoretical and practical issues, and packed with equations and models, this book is useful for both the engineering student as well as the advanced practitioner.

Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) provides bounded-error localization relative to an environment by matching range measurements of local terrain against an a priori map. The environment-relative and onboard sensing characteristics of TRN make it a powerful tool for return-to-site missions in GPS-denied environments, with potential applications ranging from underwater and space robotic exploration to pedestrian indoor navigation. For many of these applications, available sensors may be limited by mission power/weight constraints, cost restrictions, and environmental effects (e.g. inability to use a magnetic compass in space). Such limitations not only degrade the accuracy of traditional navigation systems, but further impact the ability to successfully employ TRN. Consequently, despite numerous advances in TRN technology over the past several decades, the application of TRN has been restricted to systems with highly accurate and information-rich sensor systems. In addition, a limited understanding of the effects of map quality and sensor quality on TRN performance has overly restricted the types of missions for which TRN has been considered a viable navigation solution. This thesis develops two new capabilities for TRN methods, resulting in significantly increased TRN applicability. First, a tightly-coupled filtering framework is developed which enables the successful use of TRN on vehicles with both low-accuracy navigation sensors and simple, low-information range sensors. This new filtering framework has similarities to tightly-coupled integration methods for GPS-aided navigation systems. Second, a set of analysis and design tools based on the Posterior Cramer-Rao Lower Bound are developed which allow for reliable TRN performance predictions as a function of both sensor and map quality. These analyses include the development of a new terrain map error model based on the variogram which allows for performance prediction as a function of map resolution. These developed capabilities are validated through field demonstrations on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) operated out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), where available sensing has been limited primarily by cost. These trials include a real-time, closed-loop demonstration of the developed tightly-coupled TRN framework, enabling 5m accuracy return-to-site on a sensor-limited AUV where traditional TRN methods failed to provide better than 150m accuracy. The results further demonstrate the accurate prediction capability of the developed performance bounds on fielded systems, verifying their utility as design and planning tools for future TRN missions.

This book offers extensive information on the operation of gravimeters, including airborne, marine and terrestrial ones, and on the associated data processing methods such as optimal and adaptive filtering, smoothing, structural and parametric identification. Further, it describes specific features relating to the study of the gravitational field in remote areas of the Earth, with the necessary modifications of equipment and software for all-latitude applications. Findings from gravity studies in such remote areas are also presented. Advanced methods for studying the gravitational field, including those for simultaneous determination of gravity anomalies and deflection of the vertical are described and analyzed in detail. Gravity gradiometers and cold atom gravimeters are also covered. Last but not least, the book deals with the development of Earth’s gravity field models and their various applications, including map-aided navigation, with a special attention to model accuracy estimation. Gathering research findings and best practice recommendations relating to Earth’s gravity field measurements, collected by a team of researchers and professionals, the book offers a unique guide for engineers, scientists and graduate students dealing with terrestrial, marine and airborne gravimetry. It will also help other specialists involved in developing and using navigation systems in practice, including designers of gravimetric equipment and navigators.