Enhanced rapid real time kinematics determination method and apparatus

1. A method of providing improved, rapid, real time kinematics determination, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a position signal from a base station;

receiving a position signal from a roving system;

receiving a compressed position signal from the base station;

determining a position estimate using an integrated method using the received position signal from the base station, the received position signal from the roving system, and the received compressed position signal;

enhancing ambiguity resolution of the position estimate by applying a quality control procedure using derived validation criteria; and

deriving a second position estimate based on the enhanced ambiguity resolution.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the compressed position signal comprises an L 1 carrier phase measurement.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the L 1 carrier phase measurement is in raw measurement form.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the L 1 carrier phase measurement is in differential correction form.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the compressed position signal is transmitted at an update rate greater than 1 Hz.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the sampling rate of the derived second position estimate is greater than 10 Hz.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the sampling rate of the derived second position estimate is greater than 50 Hz.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the integrated method comprises the steps of:

determining a first position estimate in a coordinate domain;

determining a second position estimate in an observation domain;

determining a third position estimate in an estimated ambiguity domain; and

integrating the determined position estimates.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the quality control procedure comprises the steps of:

improving a stochastic model for a double-differenced functional model in real-time;

discriminating between the integer ambiguity sets generating the minimum quadratic form of the residuals and the second minimum one; and

performing a fault detection, identification, and adaptation procedure.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the fault detection, identification, and adaptation procedure comprises the steps of:

evaluating a global measure;

evaluating receiver autonomous integrity monitoring methods; and

if the ambiguity resolution is unsuccessful, eliminating the identified outlier observations and updating the functional model.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the fault detection, identification, and adaptation procedure comprises the steps of:

evaluating a global measure;

evaluating receiver autonomous integrity monitoring methods; and

if the ambiguity resolution is unsuccessful, eliminating the identified outlier observations and executing a different type Kalman filtering reset.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

deriving validation criteria used to identify a correct integer ambiguity set.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the deriving validation criteria step comprises the steps of:

tuning a stochastic model of observation;

selecting a nominal data set for a baseline;

setting validation criteria to preset values and executing an Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) process; summarizing RTK process results as a function of (1) fixing percentage over total resets and (2) wrong fix percentage over total fixes for each number of satellites, for each of ionosphere activity and environment type;

determining validation criteria values for each preset reliability for each baseline having a different number of satellites;

fitting a function of baseline length and time-to-try classified based on ionosphere activity and environment condition for each preset reliability; and

selecting a validation criteria set based on ionosphere activity and environment type.

14. A computer readable medium comprising:

at least one sequence of machine executable instructions in machine form, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor cause the processor to:

receive a position signal from a base station;

receive a position signal from a roving system;

receive a compressed position signal from the base station;

determine a position estimate using an integrated method using the received position signal from the base station, the received position signal from the roving system, and the received compressed position signal;

enhance ambiguity resolution of the position estimate by applying a quality control procedure using derived validation criteria; and

derive a second position estimate based on the enhanced ambiguity resolution.

15. The medium as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the compressed position signal comprises an L 1 carrier phase measurement.

16. An apparatus for providing improved, rapid, real time kinematics determination, the apparatus comprising:

signal receiving means for receiving a position signal from a base station and a roving system, and for receiving a compressed position signal from the base station;

determining means for determining a position estimate using an integrated method using the position signals received from the base station and roving station and the compressed position signal received from the base station;

means for enhancing ambiguity resolution of the position estimate by applying a quality control procedure using derived validation criteria; and

means for deriving a second position estimate based on the enhanced ambiguity resolution.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the compressed position signal comprises a L 1 carrier phase measurement.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the L 1 carrier phase measurement is in raw measurement form.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the L 1 carrier phase measurement is in differential correction form.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the compressed position signal is transmitted at an update rate greater than 1 Hz.