Resilient Sensor Management for Dismounted Assured-PNT
Shahram Moafipoor, Lydia Bock, Jeffrey A. Fayman · Proceedings of the Institute of Navigation ... International Technical Meeting/Proceedings of the ... International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation · 2020
Accurate and reliable Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) information is vital in military applications for mission success. In this work, the solution to vulnerability of GPS systems for dismounted warfighters is to provide a resilient and assured-PNT capability using low-cost, COTS systems. This article will provide details on the development of an architecture and intelligent small SWaP-C system-based GPS (SAASM)/IMU/ holdover-oscillator /vision multisensory integration to provide assured-PNT for operational domains in naturally and/or intentionally GPS-denied environments. The system allows real-time GPS assurance through multisensory integrity assessment, which enhances situational awareness and jamming/spoofing resiliency. The architecture of the assured PNT system includes: (1) stable holdover oscillator for sensor time synchronization; (2) an intelligent dead-reckoning module; (3) visual-aiding to the dead-reckoning module to constrain motion relative to observed environment; and (4) detection of jamming and RF interference to the GPS receiver order to expand the GPS signals operational envelope. The architecture allows resilient sensor management and multi-sensor fusion, including (a) incorporating measures of reliability into measurement fusion for robust PNT estimates; (b) detecting sensor faults and resilient sensor management; (c) smooth transition from GPS availability to GPS-denied and vice versa; (d) support for civilian GPS receivers to combine both military and civil signals from multiple GNSS’s; (e) using redundant IMUs to increase performance during GPS outages; and (f) using the holdover oscillator (master-clock) over a distributed network for TDOA/TOA positioning. Considering the system design for dismounted warfighters, the dead-reckoning module was developed to treat the human body as a virtual sensor used in estimating the dismount’s locomotion pattern. A closed feedback between the dead-reckoning module and 3D vision modeling is the main advantage of the solution. The solution couples a deep integration of vision-aided personal navigation system and the human body as a navigation sensor to facilitate dead-reckoning navigation in indoor environments.