Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The paper addresses the problem of attitude determination using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements from multiple antennas mounted on a navigation platform. To achieve attitude determination by GNSS with typical accuracy down to tenths of a degree for one-meter baselines, GNSS phase measurements are employed. A key challenge with phase measurements is the presence of unknown integer ambiguities. Consequently, the attitude determination problem traditionally reduces to a nonlinear, non-convex optimization problem with integer constraints. No closed-form solution to this problem is known, and its real-time calculation is computationally intensive. Given an a priori initial attitude approximation, we propose a new algorithm for attitude tracking based on the reduction of the nonlinear orthogonality-constrained attitude estimation problem to a linear integer least squares problem, for which numerical methods are well known and computationally much less demanding. Additionally, a simple a priori model for GNSS measurement error variance is introduced, grounded on the geometry of satellite signal propagation through vacuum and the Earth's atmosphere, providing a clear physical interpretation. Applying the algorithm to a real dataset collected from a quasi-static multi-antenna, multi-GNSS system with sub-meter baselines, we obtain promising results.
Source: Sensors
DOI: 10.3390/s25216761
Authors: Fedor Kapralov, Alexander Kozlov
Institution: Lomonosov Moscow State University
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,137
Awards: G1367663420, G8017045214
OpenAlex ID: W4415931028