Navigation systems are of interest for applications in both civilian and military vehicles. Satellite navigation systems and inertial navigation systems are the most applied in this area. They have complementary properties, which has led to a trend of integrating these systems. At present, there are several approaches to GNSS/INS integration: loosely coupled, tightly coupled and deeply coupled and many approaches to their modifications in dependence of application and arising problems with measurements, such as lack of GNSS measurements or poor quality of GNSS and INS measurements. This article presents an extensive review of the available modern approaches and their modifications for integrating INS and GNSS measurements, arranging them and highlights the main problems arising for the considered type of integration approach. The article includes a review of various integration tools based on the Kalman filter and intelligent systems, INS mechanization and features of development of an INS measurement error model that is necessary for integration, the main problems of GNSS/INS integration and a comparative description of the solutions proposed by the authors for solving these problems. The findings of this work are useful for further research in the field of inertial and satellite navigation, as well as for engineers involved in the practical implementation of integrated GNSS/INS systems.

GNSS-based Attitude Determination (AD) of a mobile object using the readings of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is an active area of research. Numerous attitude determination methods have been developed lately by making use of various sensors. However, the last two decades have witnessed an accelerated growth in research related to GNSS-based navigational equipment as a reliable and competitive device for determining the attitude of any outdoor moving object using data demodulated from GNSS signals. Because of constantly increasing number of GNSS-based AD methods, algorithms, and techniques, introduced in scientific papers worldwide, the problem of choosing an appropriate approach, that is optimal for the given application, operational environment, and limited financial funding becomes quite a challenging task. The work presents an extensive literature survey of the methods mentioned above which are classified in many different categories. The main aim of this survey is to help researchers and developers in the field of GNSS applications to understand pros and cons of the current state of the art methods and their computational efficiency, the scope of use and accuracy of the angular determination.

Graphical abstract

No abstract

The world development of science and technology prompts many countries to use their own modern coordinate systems, determined on the basis of satellite measurements. Moreover, the modern system must be characterized by its openness and unity for the entire territory of the country. One of the main problems arising during the creation and operation of our own high-precision positioning satellite systems in the Republic of Kazakhstan are: the lack of domestic satellite equipment, specialized software and test methods for the software and hardware complex. A unique opportunity appeared in the development and testing of the software and hardware complex of the high-precision satellite positioning system at the Kacharsky open pit thanks to the funding of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan through grants for scientific and technical projects for 2018–2020 (grant No. AP05136083) and co-financing of the private partner JSC «SSGPO». The article presents the results of technical solutions for the implementation of a high-precision satellite positioning system, in particular, the creation of a permanent base station (BS) of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) at operating open pit. The primary purpose of the work is to provide high-precision positioning of an open field in order to determine geodetic coordinates using modern satellite navigation technologies in real-time and post-processing. This development continues the path of introducing the elements of Industry 4.0, which is currently being carried out at the Kacharsky open pit.