Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

GNSS PPP-RTK tightly coupled with low-cost visual-inertial odometry aiming at urban canyons

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Geodesy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

High-precision positioning is essential for emerging mass-market applications such as autonomous driving, unmanned aerial vehicles and intelligent transportation in complex urban canyons. Without global navigation satellite system (GNSS) reference stations, the real-time kinematic precise point positioning (PPP-RTK) technique is widely used in these fields because of its fast and accurate absolute positioning capability. However, in complex urban canyons, the performance of PPP-RTK deteriorates dramatically due to the satellite signal obstruction and interference. In contrast, inertial navigation system (INS) and visual navigation can provide precise relative pose estimation, but they suffer from serious error accumulation. Therefore, there is a strong complementary advantage between GNSS and INS/Vision navigation and positioning. In this study, a tightly coupled PPP-RTK/INS/Vision integration model is developed, aiming at improving the performance of PPP-RTK in terms of precision and availability to achieve robust positioning in complex urban canyons. Vehicle-borne experiments with different typical urban scenarios were carried out. We found that the positioning precision, availability and the ambiguity fixing rate of PPP-RTK can be significantly improved by tightly coupling with INS and Vision. The positioning precision of tightly coupled micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based PPP-RTK/INS/Vision is 6 cm, 5 cm and 10 cm in the east, north and up components, respectively, with an ambiguity fixing rate of 83.6% in typical urban environments, which are comparable to the statistics of a tactical-based PPP-RTK/INS tight integration. Even in complex urban canyons, the positioning precision of tightly coupled MEMS-based PPP-RTK/INS/Vision solution can still reach 11 cm, 7 cm and 13 cm in the east, north and up components, respectively, exhibiting improvements of over 90% compared to GNSS-only PPP-RTK. These results indicate that PPP-RTK tightly coupled with low-cost MEMS-IMU and monocular vision can provide high-precision and high-reliability navigation and positioning solutions even in complex urban environments.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The WUM satellite products are at ftp://igs.gnsswhu.cn/pub/whu/phasebias/. The vehicle-borne experiment data are available and can be obtained at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7795625.

References

  • Albéri M, Baldoncini M, Bottardi C et al (2017) Accuracy of flight altitude measured with low-cost GNSS, radar and barometer sensors: implications for airborne radiometric surveys. Sensors 17(8):1889

  • Campos C, Elvira R, Rodríguez JJG, Montiel JM, Tardós JD (2021) ORB-SLAM3: an accurate open-source library for visual, visual-inertial, and multi-map SLAM. IEEE Trans Rob 37(6):1874–1890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao S, Lu X, Shen S (2022) GVINS: tightly coupled GNSS-visual-inertial fusion for smooth and consistent state estimation. IEEE Trans Rob. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2021.3133730

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cioffi G, Scaramuzza D (2020) Tightly-coupled Fusion of Global Positional Measurements in Optimization-based Visual-Inertial Odometry. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems, Las Vegas, NV, USA October 25–January 24, pp 5089–5095

  • Gao Z, Zhang H, Ge M et al (2017) Tightly coupled integration of multi-GNSS PPP and MEMS inertial measurement unit data. GPS Solut 21(2):377–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ge M, Gendt G, Rothacher M, Shi C, Liu J (2008) Resolution of GPS carrier-phase ambiguities in precise point positioning with daily observations. J Geod 82(7):389–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geneva P, Eckenhoff K, Lee W, Yang Y, Huang G (2020) OpenVINS: a research platform for visual-inertial estimation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Paris, France, May 31–August 31, pp 4666–4672

  • Geng J, Li X, Zhao Q, Li G (2019) Inter-system PPP ambiguity resolution between GPS and BeiDou for rapid initialization. J Geod 93(3):383–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geng J, Wen Q, Zhang Q, Li G, Zhang K (2022) GNSS observable-specific phase biases for all-frequency PPP ambiguity resolution. J Geod 96(2):1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gong Z, Liu P, Wen F, Ying R, Ji X, Miao R, Xue W (2020) Graph-based adaptive fusion of GNSS and VIO under intermittent GNSS-degraded environment. IEEE Trans Instrum Meas 70:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Gu S, Dai C, Fang W et al (2021) Multi-GNSS PPP/INS tightly coupled integration with atmospheric augmentation and its application in urban vehicle navigation. J Geod 95(6):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesch JA, Kottas DG, Bowman SL, Roumeliotis SI (2013) Consistency analysis and improvement of vision-aided inertial navigation. IEEE Trans Rob 30(1):158–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu L-T (2018) Analysis and modeling GPS NLOS effect in highly urbanized area. GPS Solut 22(1):7–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang G, Kaess M, Leonard JJ (2014) Towards consistent visual-inertial navigation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Hong Kong, China, May 3–June 5, pp 4926–4933

  • Hwangbo M, Kim J, Kanade T (2009) Inertial-aided KLT feature tracking for a moving camera. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems, St. Louis, MO, USA, October 11–15, pp 1909–1916

  • Janssen V, Ge L, Rizos C (2004) Tropospheric corrections to SAR interferometry from GPS observations. GPS Solut 8(3):140–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang J, Niu X, Liu J (2020) Improved IMU preintegration with gravity change and earth rotation for optimization-based GNSS/VINS. Remote Sens 12(18):3048

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly J, Sukhatme GS (2011) Visual-inertial sensor fusion: localization, mapping and sensor-to-sensor self-calibration. Int J Robot Res 30(1):56–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee W, Eckenhoff K, Geneva P, Huang G (2020) Intermittent GPS-aided VIO: online initialization and calibration. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Paris, France, May 31–August 31, pp 5724–5731

  • Li M, Mourikis AI (2012) Improving the accuracy of EKF-based visual-inertial odometry. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Saint Paul, MN, USA, May 14–18, pp 828–835

  • Li M, Mourikis AI (2013) High-precision, consistent EKF-based visual-inertial odometry. Int J Robot Res 32(6):690–711

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li T, Pei L, Xiang Y, Yu W, Truong T (2022) P3-VINS: tightly-coupled PPP/INS/Visual SLAM based on optimization approach. IEEE Robot Autom Lett. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2022.3180441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li T, Zhang H, Gao Z, Niu X, El-sheimy N (2019) Tight fusion of a monocular camera, MEMS-IMU, and single-frequency multi-GNSS RTK for precise navigation in GNSS-challenged environments. Remote Sens 11(6):610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Gao W, Hu Z (2021) Optimization-based visual-inertial SLAM tightly coupled with raw GNSS measurements. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Xi'an, China, May 30–June 5, pp 11612–11618

  • Lucas BD, Kanade T (1981) An iterative image registration technique with an application to stereo vision. In: Proceedings of the international joint conference on artificial intelligence, Vancouver, Canada, pp 24–28

  • Lynen S, Achtelik MW, Weiss S, Chli M, Siegwart R (2013) A robust and modular multi-sensor fusion approach applied to MAV navigation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems, Tokyo, Japan, November 3–7, pp 3923–3929

  • Martin PG, Payton OD, Fardoulis JS, Richards DA, Scott TB (2015) The use of unmanned aerial systems for the mapping of legacy uranium mines. J Environ Radioact 143:135–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mascaro R, Teixeira L, Hinzmann T, Siegwart R, Chli M (2018) GOMSF: graph-optimization based multi-sensor fusion for robust UAV pose estimation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Brisbane, Australia, May 21–25, pp 1421–1428

  • Mourikis AI, Roumeliotis SI (2007) A multi-state constraint Kalman filter for vision-aided inertial navigation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Roma, Italy, April 10–14, pp 3565–3572

  • Niu X, Tang H, Zhang T, Fan J, Liu J (2022) IC-GVINS: a robust, real-time, INS-centric GNSS-visual-inertial navigation system. IEEE Robot Autom Lett 8(1):216–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qin T, Li P, Shen S (2018) VINS-mono: a robust and versatile monocular visual-inertial state estimator. IEEE Trans Rob 34(4):1004–1020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabbou MA, El-Rabbany A (2015a) Integration of multi-constellation GNSS precise point positioning and MEMS-based inertial systems using tightly coupled mechanization. Positioning 6(4):81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabbou MA, El-Rabbany A (2015b) Tightly coupled integration of GPS precise point positioning and MEMS-based inertial systems. GPS Solut 19(4):601–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rizos C (2002) Network RTK research and implementation: a geodetic perspective. J Glob Position Syst 1(2):144–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roumeliotis SI, Johnson AE, Montgomery JF (2002) Augmenting inertial navigation with image-based motion estimation. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Washington, DC, USA, May 11–15, pp 4326–4333

  • Saastamoinen J (1973) Contribution to the theory of atmospheric refraction: refraction corrections in satellite geodesy. Bull Geod 107(1):13–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savage PG (2000) Strapdown analytics part I, Strapdown Association, Maple Plain, MI

  • Shen S, Michael N, Kumar V (2015) Tightly-coupled monocular visual-inertial fusion for autonomous flight of rotorcraft MAVs. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Seattle, WA, USA, May 25–30, pp 5303–5310

  • Shi J, Tomasi C (1994) Good features to track. In: Proceedings of the IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, Seattle, WA, USA, June 21–23, pp 593–600

  • Shin E (2005) Estimation techniques for low-cost inertial navigation. UCGE report, p 20219

  • Teunissen P (1995) The least-squares ambiguity decorrelation adjustment: a method for fast GPS integer ambiguity estimation. J Geod 70(1–2):65–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss JD, Kee DS (1995) A direct performance comparison between loosely coupled and tightly coupled GPS/INS integration techniques. In: Proceedings of the 51st annual meeting of the Institute of Navigation, Colorado Springs, CO, June 1995, pp 537–544

  • Wübbena G, Schmitz M, Bagge A (2005) PPP-RTK: precise point positioning using state-space representation in RTK networks. In: Proceedings of ION GNSS 18th international technical meeting of the Satellite Division, Long Beach, US, pp 2584–2594

  • Xin S, Geng J, Zhang G, Ng H-F, Guo J, Hsu L-T (2022) 3D-mapping-aided PPP-RTK aiming at deep urban canyons. J Geod 96:78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang G, Hsu L-T (2018) Intelligent GNSS/INS integrated navigation system for a commericial UAV flight control system. Aerosp Sci Technol 80:368–380

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zumberge JF, Heflin MB, Jefferson DC, Watkins MM, Webb FH (1997) Precise point positioning for the efficient and robust analysis of GPS data from large networks. J Geophys Res 102(B3):5005–5017

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is funded by National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFB3903800), National Science Foundation of China (No. 42025401) and Hubei Luojia Laboratory (No. 220100021).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Feng Wang & Jianghui Geng

  2. Hubei Luojia Laboratory, Wuhan, China

    Jianghui Geng

Authors
  1. Feng Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jianghui Geng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

JG designed the research project and revised the manuscript; FW carried out the research and drafted the manuscript; both approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianghui Geng.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, F., Geng, J. GNSS PPP-RTK tightly coupled with low-cost visual-inertial odometry aiming at urban canyons. J Geod 97, 66 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-023-01749-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-023-01749-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation