Shau Shiun Jan

Development of a Low-Cost Attitude and Heading Reference System Using a Three-Axis Rotating Platform

A development procedure for a low-cost attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) with a self-developed three-axis rotating platform has been proposed. The AHRS consists of one 3-axis accelerometer, three single-axis gyroscopes, and one 3-axis digital compass. Both the accelerometer and gyroscope triads are based on micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, and the digital compass is based on anisotropic-magnetoresistive (AMR) technology. The calibrations for each sensor triad are readily accomplished by using the scalar calibration and the least squares methods. The platform is suitable for the calibration and validation of the low-cost AHRS and it is affordable for most laboratories. With the calibrated parameters and data fusion algorithm for the orientation estimation, the self-developed AHRS demonstrates the capabilities of compensating for the sensor errors and outputting the estimated orientation in real-time. The validation results show that the estimated orientations of the developed AHRS are within the acceptable region. This verifies the practicability of the proposed development procedure.

Improving GPS-based landing system performance using an empirical barometric altimeter confidence bound

This paper develops an empirical confidence bound for barometric altimeter altitude errors and shows how this bound may improve the performance of GPS-based approach and landing systems. This empirical bound is developed using historical meteorological data collected at a set of geographically diverse locations over a thirty year period. The confidence bound developed is shown to provide a Gaussian overbound on altimeter altitude errors in standard atmospheric conditions between a 10-5 and 10-6 confidence level. This confidence bound is integrated into the standard methodology for analyzing the performance of GPS-based landing systems and the results of a performance trade study using the confidence bound are presented. The results show that incorporating the empirical barometric altimeter confidence bound provides an increase in the coterminous United States (CONUS) service volume for lateral precision with vertical guidance (LPV) type approaches. While this increase is approximately 2% for an L1 single-frequency GPS user, it jumps to roughly 40% for an L5 single-frequency user.

Development of an indoor location based service test bed and geographic information system with a wireless sensor network.

In order to provide the seamless navigation and positioning services for indoor environments, an indoor location based service (LBS) test bed is developed to integrate the indoor positioning system and the indoor three-dimensional (3D) geographic information system (GIS). A wireless sensor network (WSN) is used in the developed indoor positioning system. Considering the power consumption, in this paper the ZigBee radio is used as the wireless protocol, and the received signal strength (RSS) fingerprinting positioning method is applied as the primary indoor positioning algorithm. The matching processes of the user location include the nearest neighbor (NN) algorithm, the K-weighted nearest neighbors (KWNN) algorithm, and the probabilistic approach. To enhance the positioning accuracy for the dynamic user, the particle filter is used to improve the positioning performance. As part of this research, a 3D indoor GIS is developed to be used with the indoor positioning system. This involved using the computer-aided design (CAD) software and the virtual reality markup language (VRML) to implement a prototype indoor LBS test bed. Thus, a rapid and practical procedure for constructing a 3D indoor GIS is proposed, and this GIS is easy to update and maintenance for users. The building of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan is used as an example to assess the performance of various algorithms for the indoor positioning system.

Received signal strength database interpolation by Kriging for a Wi-Fi indoor positioning system

The main approach for a Wi-Fi indoor positioning system is based on the received signal strength (RSS) measurements, and the fingerprinting method is utilized to determine the user position by matching the RSS values with the pre-surveyed RSS database. To build a RSS fingerprint database is essential for an RSS based indoor positioning system, and building such a RSS fingerprint database requires lots of time and effort. As the range of the indoor environment becomes larger, labor is increased. To provide better indoor positioning services and to reduce the labor required for the establishment of the positioning system at the same time, an indoor positioning system with an appropriate spatial interpolation method is needed. In addition, the advantage of the RSS approach is that the signal strength decays as the transmission distance increases, and this signal propagation characteristic is applied to an interpolated database with the Kriging algorithm in this paper. Using the distribution of reference points (RPs) at measured points, the signal propagation model of the Wi-Fi access point (AP) in the building can be built and expressed as a function. The function, as the spatial structure of the environment, can create the RSS database quickly in different indoor environments. Thus, in this paper, a Wi-Fi indoor positioning system based on the Kriging fingerprinting method is developed. As shown in the experiment results, with a 72.2% probability, the error of the extended RSS database with Kriging is less than 3 dBm compared to the surveyed RSS database. Importantly, the positioning error of the developed Wi-Fi indoor positioning system with Kriging is reduced by 17.9% in average than that without Kriging.

Design and implementation of linear-quadratic-Gaussian stability augmentation autopilot for unmanned air vehicle

The linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) control synthesis has the advantage of dealing with the uncertain linear systems disturbed by additive white Gaussian noise while having incomplete system state information available for control-loop feedback. This paper hence explores the feasibility of designing and implementing a stability augmentation autopilot for fixed-wing unmanned air vehicles using the LQG approach. The autopilot is composed of two independently designed LQG controllers which control the longitudinal and lateral motions of the aircraft respectively. The corresponding linear models are obtained through a system identification routine which makes use of the combination of two well-established identification methods, namely the subspace method and prediction error method. The two identification methods complement each other well and this paper shows that the proposed system identification scheme is capable of attaining satisfactory state-space models. A complete autopilot design procedure is devised and it is shown that the design process is simple and effective. Resulting longitudinal and lateral controllers are successfully verified in computer simulations and actual flight tests. The flight test results are presented in the paper and they are found to be consistent with the simulation results.

Autonomous Hovering of an Experimental Unmanned Helicopter System with Proportional-Integral Sliding Mode Control

This paper presents a method of approaching the attitude control of an autonomously hovering unmanned helicopter system. The proportional-integral sliding mode controller (PISMC) features a combination of the conventional sliding mode control (SMC) and the integral sliding mode control (ISMC). By applying the PISMC algorithm, the controller is capable of providing stable roll and pitch control of the main rotor simultaneously. To show how PISMC may improve system performance, this paper develops an experimental unmanned helicopter system to assess the performance of the proposed controller. The results of the simulation show that the tracking error of the PISMC is not only smaller but also converges more quickly than that of the conventional SMC. Resulting roll and pitch controllers are successfully verified in computer simulations and actual flight tests. The flight test results presented in the paper are found to be consistent with the simulation results.

Vertical Guidance Performance Analysis of the L1-L5 Dual-Frequency GPS/WAAS User Avionics Sensor

This paper investigates the potential vertical guidance performance of global positioning system (GPS)/wide area augmentation system (WAAS) user avionics sensor when the modernized GPS and Galileo are available. This paper will first investigate the airborne receiver code noise and multipath (CNMP) confidence (σair). The σair will be the dominant factor in the availability analysis of an L1–L5 dual-frequency GPS/WAAS user avionics sensor. This paper uses the MATLAB Algorithm Availability Simulation Tool (MAAST) to determine the required values for the σair, so that an L1–L5 dual-frequency GPS/WAAS user avionics sensor can meet the vertical guidance requirements of APproach with Vertical guidance (APV) II and CATegory (CAT) I over conterminous United States (CONUS). A modified MAAST that includes the Galileo satellite constellation is used to determine under what user configurations WAAS could be an APV II system or a CAT I system over CONUS. Furthermore, this paper examines the combinations of possible improvements in signal models and the addition of Galileo to determine if GPS/WAAS user avionics sensor could achieve 10 m Vertical Alert Limit (VAL) within the service volume. Finally, this paper presents the future vertical guidance performance of GPS user avionics sensor for the United States’ WAAS, Japanese MTSAT-based satellite augmentation system (MSAS) and European geostationary navigation overlay service (EGNOS).

Radar Tracking with an Interacting Multiple Model and Probabilistic Data Association Filter for Civil Aviation Applications

The current trend of the civil aviation technology is to modernize the legacy air traffic control (ATC) system that is mainly supported by many ground based navigation aids to be the new air traffic management (ATM) system that is enabled by global positioning system (GPS) technology. Due to the low receiving power of GPS signal, it is a major concern to aviation authorities that the operation of the ATM system might experience service interruption when the GPS signal is jammed by either intentional or unintentional radio-frequency interference. To maintain the normal operation of the ATM system during the period of GPS outage, the use of the current radar system is proposed in this paper. However, the tracking performance of the current radar system could not meet the required performance of the ATM system, and an enhanced tracking algorithm, the interacting multiple model and probabilistic data association filter (IMMPDAF), is therefore developed to support the navigation and surveillance services of the ATM system. The conventional radar tracking algorithm, the nearest neighbor Kalman filter (NNKF), is used as the baseline to evaluate the proposed radar tracking algorithm, and the real flight data is used to validate the IMMPDAF algorithm. As shown in the results, the proposed IMMPDAF algorithm could enhance the tracking performance of the current aviation radar system and meets the required performance of the new ATM system. Thus, the current radar system with the IMMPDAF algorithm could be used as an alternative system to continue aviation navigation and surveillance services of the ATM system during GPS outage periods.

A linear-quadratic-Gaussian approach for automatic flight control of fixed-wing unmanned air vehicles

This paper presents the design and implementation of automatic flight controllers for a fixed-wing unmanned air vehicle (UAV) by using a linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) control approach. The LQG design is able to retain the guaranteed closed-loop stability of the linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) while having incomplete state measurement. Instead of feeding back the actual states to form the control law, the estimated states provided by a separately designed optimal observer, i.e. the Kalman filter are used. The automatic flight controllers that include outer-loop controls are constructed based on two independent LQG regulators which govern the longitudinal and lateral dynamics of the UAV respectively. The resulting controllers are structurally simple and thus efficient enough to be easily realized with limited onboard computing resource. In this paper, the design of the LQG controllers is described while the navigation and guidance algorithm based on Global Positioning System (GPS) data is also outlined. In order to validate the performance of the automatic flight control system, a series of flight tests have been conducted. Significant results are presented and discussed in detail. Overall, the flight-test results show that it is highly feasible and effective to apply the computationally efficient LQG controllers on a fixed-wing UAV system with a relatively simple onboard system. On the other hand, a fully automatic 44km cross-sea flight demonstration was successfully conducted using the LQG-based flight controllers. Detailed description regarding the event and some significant flight data are given.

Comprehensive Comparisons of Satellite Data, Signals, and Measurements between the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and the Global Positioning System

The Chinese BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) aims to provide global positioning service by 2020. The combined use of BDS and Global Positioning System (GPS) is proposed to provide navigation service with more stringent requirements. Actual satellite data, signals and measurements were collected for more than one month to analyze the positioning service qualities from both BDS and GPS. In addition to the conversions of coordinate and timing system, five data quality analysis (DQA) methods, three signal quality analysis (SQA) methods, and four measurement quality analysis (MQA) methods are proposed in this paper to improve the integrated positioning performance of BDS and GPS. As shown in the experiment results, issues related to BDS and GPS are resolved by the above proposed quality analysis methods. Thus, the anomalies in satellite data, signals and measurements can be detected by following the suggested resolutions to enhance the positioning performance of the combined use of BDS and GPS in the Asia Pacific region.