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A dual-antenna heading determination method for single-frequency GNSS antennas with large phase pattern variations

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Abstract

Precise applications, including dual-antenna heading determination, have been flourishing research fields in global navigation satellite system (GNSS). However, due to the requirements for strong GNSS models and precise carrier phase measurements, single-frequency antennas with large phase pattern variations are difficult to be adopted. In this research, a search-based heading determination method is demonstrated and verified. A new ambiguity resolution (AR) method, namely baseline heading and length-constrained LAMBDA (HLC-LAMBDA), is also proposed to attempt the AR under a weak GNSS model as well as help identify a rough heading estimate among all listed heading candidates (HC). During the heading search (HS) process, all HCs are evaluated individually with relative positioning results between two antennas, and each HC being evaluated serves two functions: 1) helping correct the antenna-induced phase biases by applying a predetermined phase pattern with different attitudes, and 2) acting as a rough heading constraint in the HLC-LAMBDA method. The performance of the proposed method is analyzed in terms of the precision of heading and relative positioning solutions, the elimination of antenna-induced phase biases, and the computational efficiency; and test results utilizing a phase pattern measured in an anechoic chamber and the data in both static and kinematic cases are also shown, illustrating a consistent conclusion that, under the condition of single-frequency measurements and large phase pattern variations, the proposed method can provide heading solutions with a root mean square error (RMSE) of around 0.07°.

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Data availability

Data can be found on the website of the GNSS Research Center of Curtin University. The data are slightly modified to suit the simulation condition. The other data used in this manuscript are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62201028). We would like to express our gratitude to anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Wenxin Jin, Wenfei Gong, Tianwei Hou, Xin Sun & Hao Ma

  2. College of Fashion Art and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Hao Ma

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  1. Wenxin Jin
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  2. Wenfei Gong
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  3. Tianwei Hou
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  4. Xin Sun
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  5. Hao Ma
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Contributions

WXJ, WFG, and TWH devised the main conceptual ideas, performed the research, analyzed the data and wrote the paper. XS and HM provided guidance for the development of the algorithm, gave helpful discussion on shaping the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tianwei Hou.

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Jin, W., Gong, W., Hou, T. et al. A dual-antenna heading determination method for single-frequency GNSS antennas with large phase pattern variations. GPS Solut 27, 96 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-023-01429-1

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