Abstract: AROTAN provides for autonomous terrain aided navigation that is fully independent of the position uncertainty of the vehicle during flight. AROTAN aligns a grid to the search space and periodically updates the search space during the measurement history to account for growth in position uncertainty. AROTAN computes terrain sufficiency statistics for a moving history to provide robust criteria for when to perform the correlation. A post-correlation refinement provides an additional correction of the horizontal position error and a correction of the altitude. AROTAN can quickly provide the vehicle's location based on the correlation from a single measurement history.

Abstract: Method in a Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, including determining pseudorange (PNR) measurements for at least four satellites (210), determining a coarse time (220) corresponding to the pseudorange measurement, determining an offset time (240) between a periodic GPS event of one of the four satellites and the coarse time, determining a time correction delta (250) based upon the period of the Periodic GPS event, the offset time and the coarse time if an error of the coarse time is less than ½ the period of the periodic GPS event, and determining corrected time (260) based upon the coarse time and the time correction delta if the error of the coarse time is less than ½ the period of the periodic GPS event.

Abstract: Methods and architectures for data message bit synchronization of a spread spectrum signal having a repeating sequence of pseudorandom code bits modulated with data message bits having a data bit time that is an integer number of a repeat time of the pseudorandom code bits. In one embodiment, an adjusted bit sync offset time is determined for each of a plurality of signals for which bit sync offset time is not known based on a corresponding clock error corrected propagation time for each signal, based on a known bit synch offset time and based on a clock error corrected propagation time of the signal for which bit synch offset time is known.

Abstract: A system for synchronizing a clock includes a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit that generates or receives (304) timing errors that are based on timing information from multiple timing sources. Gain blocks (214) weight (306) the timing errors, which are then combined (308) into a loop time error. A loop integrator (226) integrates (310) the loop time error to produce an input used to adjust (312) an oscillator frequency. A corresponding oscillator clock signal is fed back (240) to one or more phase detectors (206), which receive (302) timing reference signals and generate timing errors. When a timing errors indicates that a problem exists with a timing source, the impact of the problematic timing source is reduced (430, 504), or oscillator frequency adjustments are suspended (608). When used on a satellite (700), at least one of the timing errors can be based on times of transmit and times of arrival of time messages exchanged between the satellite and its neighbors (716).

Abstract: Method in a Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, including determining pseudorange (PNR) measurements for at least four satellites (210), determining a coarse time (220) corresponding to the pseudorange measurement, determining an offset time (240) between a periodic GPS event of one of the four satellites and the coarse time, determining a time correction delta (250) based upon the period of the Periodic GPS event, the offset time and the coarse time if an error of the coarse time is less than ½ the period of the periodic GPS event, and determining corrected time (260) based upon the coarse time and the time correction delta if the error of the coarse time is less than ½ the period of the periodic GPS event.

Abstract: Methods and architectures for data message bit synchronization of a spread spectrum signal having a repeating sequence of pseudorandom code bits modulated with data message bits having a data bit time that is an integer number of a repeat time of the pseudorandom code bits. In one embodiment, an adjusted bit sync offset time is determined for each of a plurality of signals for which bit sync offset time is not known based on a corresponding clock error corrected propagation time for each signal, based on a known bit synch offset time and based on a clock error corrected propagation time of the signal for which bit synch offset time is known.

Abstract: A method of determining the position of a satellite in a near geosynchronous orbit includes receiving at least one main lobe signal from an antenna on a first GPS satellite. A GPS signal, including GPS time and Doppler, is received from a pseudolite positioned on the Earth and an approximate position of each of a plurality of second GPS satellites is determined from an onboard almanac. Side lobe signals and accompanying noise are received from antennas on the plurality of second GPS satellites. The GPS signal and known sequential data bits are used for sorting or integrating the side lobe signals from the accompanying noise and the position of the satellite in a near geosynchronous orbit is determined using the one or more main lobe signals and the sorted side lobe signals.

Abstract: Methods and architectures for data message bit synchronization of a spread spectrum signal having a repeating sequence of pseudorandom code bits modulated with data message bits having a data bit time that is an integer number of a repeat time of the pseudorandom code bits. In one embodiment, an adjusted bit sync offset time is determined for each of a plurality of signals for which bit sync offset time is not known based on a corresponding clock error corrected propagation time for each signal, based on a known bit synch offset time and based on a clock error corrected propagation time of the signal for which bit synch offset time is known.

Abstract: Calibration of a differential scale factor associated with left and right wheels of a vehicle having a terrestrial navigation system. The terrestrial navigation system includes a GPS receiver integrated with a dead reckoning system. The dead reckoning system has wheel sensors coupled to the left and right wheels. The calibration of the differential scale factor includes: determining a heading change with the dead reckoning system, using the determined heading change to determine an open loop heading, determining an error in the differential scale factor based on the open loop heading and an alternate heading, and using the error in the differential scale factor to adjust an initial value of the differential scale factor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for location determination of a mobile station (304) in a fixed radiocommunication system having at least one base station (302) reduces the computational load on the mobile station. Satellite ephemeris information and clock correction information are received at a base station and periodically used to calculate satellite position data. The satellite position data are conveyed to the mobile station. At other times, the satellite ephemeris data is used to calculate curve fit data at the base station. The curve fit data is transmitted to the mobile station, reducing the amount of data conveyed over the communication link and the computation load on the mobile station.

Abstract: The present invention provides an assessment, in real-time, of the integrity of the positioning solution and navigation sensors used to support an Emergency Calling System (ECS) that integrates positioning and cellular phone technology. This integrity information is used, via a warning light displayed to the driver, to indicate when the system will not support Emergency Calling to the accuracies required. The present invention discusses that at least two types of warnings may be generated and provided to the user. The first being an indication that the positioning accuracy will no longer support Emergency Calling. The second being an indication that a sensor or subsystem of the Emergency Call positioning system is malfunctioning and should be serviced as soon as possible whereby such a malfunction may lead to eventual failure of the system.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for maintaining the integrity of spacecraft based time and position using GPS (11) is disclosed. A GPS receiver is provided with a Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitor (RAIM) processor (12) and a Kalman filter (14). GPS signals are received from at least four GPS satellites and processed in the GPS receiver to provide time and position information. Periodically, an extended fault vector is formed in the Kalman filter with propagated open-loop position and velocity measurements. The extended fault vector is used to isolate and remove failing GPS satellites.

Abstract: This invention extends GPS coverage in an automotive environment without requiring direct interfaces to the vehicle's sensors in a unique and cost effective way. Since it removes all required vehicle interfaces (except power), it produces a virtually portable navigation system with no installation requirements beyond that of the GPS receiver itself. It also removes the necessary "customization" of the navigation system to each particular vehicle. Fundamentally, the position of a vehicle is obtained by GPS receiver data augmented with a low cost gyro whereby the gyro accurately tracks the heading changes of the vehicle (in the absence of sufficient GPS information), and the GPS receiver includes an innovative algorithm for deriving speed information from Doppler measurements from just one or two GPS satellites.

Abstract: This invention reduces the navigation error associated with the use of wheel sensor based DR as an augmentation to GPS. In order to derive accurate heading information from the wheel speeds, the distance between the centers of the tires, or the wheel track, must be known to high precision. Unfortunately, the wheel track may not be precisely known whereby different classes of the same vehicle type can produce variations of up to 5%. The current invention removes the error growth associated with wheel track error by automatically estimating and calibrating the wheel track. The wheel track is measured by computing a heading rate directly from the GPS Doppler measurements, and comparing it with the heading rate derived from the wheel sensors whereby subsequent refinements to the estimated wheel track are computed by filtering each measured track.

Abstract: This invention reduces the error growth associated with vehicle Dead Reckoning (DR) systems utilizing heading rate sensors (15) by compensating for the lever arm or offset between the Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna (11) and the center of rotation of the vehicle. When turning at moderate speeds, the error induced in the GPS heading by this lever arm can be the dominant error effect. Accordingly, the present invention recognizes this source of error and further describes a method and apparatus for estimating and compensating for the error effect of this lever arm.