Single-Satellite Integrated Navigation Algorithm Based on Broadband LEO Constellation Communication Links

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 13; no. 4; p. 703
• Main Authors: Ye, Lvyang, Yang, Yikang, Jing, Xiaolun, Ma, Jiangang, Deng, Lingyu, Li, Hengnian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 01.02.2021
• Subjects: aircraft; algorithms; altimeters; clock bias; integrated navigation; LEO; PNTRC; quantitative analysis; satellites; single-satellite positioning; UKF
• DOI: 10.3390/rs13040703
• ISSN: 2072-4292

With the rapid development of satellite technology and the need to satisfy the increasing demand for location-based services, in challenging environments such as indoors, forests, and canyons, there is an urgent need to improve the position accuracy in these environments. However, traditional algorithms obtain the position solution through time redundancy in exchange for spatial redundancy, and they require continuous observations that cannot satisfy the real-time location services. In addition, they must also consider the clock bias between the satellite and receiver. Therefore, in this paper, we provide a single-satellite integrated navigation algorithm based on the elimination of clock bias for broadband low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication links. First, we derive the principle of LEO satellite communication link clock bias elimination; then, we give the principle and process of the algorithm. Next, we model and analyze the error of the system. Subsequently, based on the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), we model the state vector and observation vector of our algorithm and give the state and observation equations. Finally, for different scenarios, we conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis through simulations, and the results show that, whether in an altimeter scenario or non-altimeter scenario, the performance indicators of our algorithm are significantly better than the inertial navigation system (INS), which can effectively overcome the divergence problem of INS; compared with the medium earth orbit (MEO) constellation, the navigation trajectory under the LEO constellation is closer to the real trajectory of the aircraft; and compared with the traditional algorithm, the accuracy of each item is improved by more than 95%. These results show that our algorithm not only significantly improves the position error, but also effectively suppresses the divergence of INS. The algorithm is more robust and can satisfy the requirements of cm-level real-time location services in challenging environments.