Reliability of Smartphone Positioning in Harsh Environment

Abstract

Since 2016, it has been possible to record and collect GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) raw data on Android devices. This has been a game changer in low-cost device applications. Researchers in the GNSS field have tried to answer new questions regarding Android device positioning performance, the quality of their measurements, positioning techniques that could be applied, and methods to increase the accuracy and the reliability of the PNT (Position Navigation Timing) solution. Several research groups have demonstrated accurate positioning using smartphones while also showing the potential limitations of such devices. In particular, problems related to the GNSS antenna performance have been reported; indeed, in urban scenarios, where users typically operate, the presence of multiple outliers could make the navigation solution inaccurate, if not unfeasible. Hence, techniques useful for verifying the reliability of the navigation solutions have become fundamental. The reliability of the PNT solution provided by smartphones is an open research question. In this study, traditional RAIM (Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring) algorithms were adapted to the case of smartphones. Navigation solution algorithms, including FDE (Fault Detection and Exclusion), were tested using a long data collection made by a smartphone located in a harsh environment in static mode. The performance of the proposed approaches was assessed in terms of horizontal and vertical errors, solution reliability, and residual distribution.

Keywords

• RAIM
• integrity
• smartphone
• subset
• Forward–Backward
• disturbed scenario