Abstract. Mobile mapping systems (MMS) can be used for several purposes, such as transportation, highway infrastructure mapping and GIS data collecting. However, the acceptance of these systems is not wide spread and their use is still limited due the high cost and dependency on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). A low cost vision based personal MMS has been produced with an aim to overcome these limitations. The system has been designed to depend mainly on cameras and use of low cost GNSS and inertial sensors to provide a bundle adjustment solution with initial values. The system has the potential to be used indoor and outdoor. The system has been tested indoors and outdoors with different GPS coverage, surrounded features, and narrow and curvy paths. Tests show that the system is able to work in such environments providing 3D coordinates of better than 10 cm accuracy.

This research paper comes in a series of comparisons between the Multi Epipolar Geometry-based Filter (M-EGF) and the common filters that are extensively used in Optical Robot Navigation (ORN) for filtering the results of Automatic Image Matching (AIM). The accuracy of ORN depends mainly on the quality of the AIM results. Conformal 2D transformation-based Filter (C-2DF) is a common filter used in ORN applications. However, C-2DF is limited in terms of: time processing, disability to deal AIM data with significant number of outliers, dealing with images taking from different Depths Of Fields (DOF) and difficult view angles. M-EGF has been introduced recently by the author and compared with Single Epipolar Geometry based Filter (S-EGF), showing high ability to provide ORN with precise, trusted, outlier-free, and real time observations. In this paper, M-EGF has been compared with C-2DF using images captured by optical navigation system simulating ORN, which includes 3 cameras synchronized using GPS time. The performance of the two filters has been evaluated in different AIM environments and the automatically filtered results have been compared to precisely manually reviewed matched points using Matlap. Tests show that C-2DF has failed to deal with the AIM results in areas with open, narrow, and confused DOF. Also, they have failed to find out the right mathematical model in data with high rate of mismatched points and images with difficult view angles. C-2DF is also limited in its capability to deal with figures including different scales. With limited DOF and limited rate of errors, C-2DF has provided relatively sufficient results, which can be suitable for ORN in terms of quality and processing time. C-2DF overcomes S-EGF and M-EGF in terms of being not affected by errors in the Exterior Orientation Parameters (EOP) and Interior Orientation Elements (IOE) of cameras, as C-2DF depends on estimating the mathematical model parameters using only image points.

ABSTRACT

Pseudo-range GPS code observables can provide absolute stand-alone positioning with accuracy of a few meters, which may not suitable for a wide range of engineering applications. Differencing GPS observations (DGPS) can be used for reducing or removing some of GPS errors based on the high correlation between these errors over short baselines providing accurate relative positioning. Stand-Alone Double Differences Carrier Phase (SADDCP) is an accurate velocity estimation method based on single frequency stand-alone GPS observables. Precise GPS relative positioning can then be achieved by integrating the velocity over epoch. SADDCP is a double differences technique including two epochs, two satellites and one receiver. In SADDCP, the ambiguity and receiver clock errors are removed, whereas satellite clock error, orbit errors, and ionospheric and tropospheric delays are reduced significantly. Multipath remains and can be reduced based on the multipath correlation over time, and receiver noise is increased.In this paper, SADDCP will be used to enhance the performance of stand-alone GPS code positioning, where the two positioning techniques are integrated using Kalman filter. The precise relative positioning provided by SADDCP will be utilized to smooth the absolute low accurate stand-alone GPS code positioning, providing enhanced absolute single frequency stand-alone GPS positioning. Tests in different GPS environments will be carried out for reliable investigations and the results will be discussed in details showing the advantages and limitations of this integration.

The antenna is the connecting part between Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite and receiver, and it works on transferring the satellite signal propagation to the receiver with minimum interruption. This is beside the main role that GPS antenna can play for accurate and precise positioning. High quality GPS antennas have high gain, systematic radiation pattern, Right Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP), and low directivity. Multipath error is a principal error source connected with GPS positioning and it can be mitigated using better antenna design. GPS antennas tend to be provided with choke ring frame for protection from the reflected RHCP electromagnetic waves. In this paper, the performance of three different types of GPS antenna, namely: Microstrip Patch Antenna (MPA), Helix antenna (HA), and Vertical Dipole antenna (VDA), with and without choke ring frame, has been investigated using single frequency GPS receiver. The antennas have been examined under the same GPS environment, including satellites constellation, geometry, and surroundings, with different heights from the ground reflector surface for multipath evaluation. Short base-line kinematic differential code GPS (DGPS) technique has been used for removing and mitigating the main GPS error sources and focusing on multipath effect. Satellite residuals and the quality of the obtained positioning have been considered for evaluating the performance of each antenna. The results have reflected the ability of choke ring frames to improve the performance of the three GPS antennas with different rates in multipath areas, and illustrate the advantages and limitations of each antenna. Keywords: Micro-strip, Patch, Helix, Vertical Dipole, GPS, Choke Ring Antenna, Multipath.