Systems, methods, devices and subassemblies for creating and delivering crowd-sourced GNSS models

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9612340-B1
Application number	US-201414189577-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 25, 2014
Priority date	Feb 25, 2013
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, devices and subassemblies for creating and delivering crowd-sourced GNSS models include receiving at one or more navigation receivers first signals transmitted by one or more navigation beacons, determining by the navigation receivers first navigation observables based on the received first signals, receiving at an augmentation server information associated with the first navigation observables, determining by the augmentation server augmentation information based on at least the received information associated with the first navigation observables and computational models, transmitting the augmentation information to the navigation receivers, receiving by the navigation receivers the augmentation information, receiving by the navigation receivers second signals transmitted by the one or more navigation beacon, determining by the navigation receivers second navigation observables based on the received second signals and determining by the navigation receivers a respective high-precision position, velocity, and time (PVT) solution based on the received augmentation information and the second navigation observables.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining first navigation observables by a navigation device from signals of one or more navigation beacons, the first navigation observables including information for determining a position, velocity and time (PVT) solution;
submitting the first navigation observables from the navigation device to a navigation server;
receiving crowd-sourced augmentation information by the navigation device from the navigation server in response, the augmentation information including corrections for perturbations in the first navigation observables that may reduce precision of the PVT solution, the crowd-sourced augmentation information being generated by the navigation server based on PVT solutions submitted by a plurality of navigation devices; and
determining, by the navigation device, the PVT solution using second navigation observables and the augmentation information, including correcting the perturbations in the second navigation observables according to the augmentation information.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second navigation observables include at least one of a pseudorange, a carrier Doppler shift, a carrier phase measurement, a carrier to noise ratio, a signal power level, a signal sample, or a list of navigation beacons.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the augmentation information includes an ionosphere model usable for correcting ionosphere interference with the signals.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising presenting at least a portion of the PVT solution to a user of the navigation device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the navigation beacons comprise at least one of a middleEarth orbit (MEO) satellite, a lowEarth orbit (LEO) satellite, a geostationary satellite, a geosynchronous satellite, a terrestrial beacon, an airborne beacon, or a submerged beacon.

6. A method comprising:
receiving navigation observables by a navigation server from a plurality of navigation devices, the navigation observables including information derived from signals of navigation beacons and for determining position, velocity and time (PVT) solutions;
determining, by the navigation server, a respective quality value of navigation observables from each navigation device based on a respective terrain associated with each respective PVT solution for each respective navigation device;
selecting one or more navigation observables of a navigation device from the received navigation observables of the plurality of navigation devices based on the quality values of the PVT solutions;
determining augmentation information using the selected one or more navigation observables, the augmentation information including corrections for perturbations in the navigation observables that may reduce precision of the PVT solutions; and
providing the augmentation information from the navigation server to one or more navigation devices.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the navigation observables include at least one of a pseudorange, a carrier Doppler shift, a carrier phase measurement, a carrier to noise ratio, a signal power level, a signal sample, or a list of navigation beacons.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein selecting the one or more navigation observables comprises selecting the one or more navigation observables based on at least one of:
a number of navigation beacons associated with the navigation observables,
a respective error estimate provided by each navigation device,
a respective terrain associated with each PVT solution, or
a respective elevation associated with each PVT solution.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the augmentation information comprises an ionosphere model usable for correcting ionosphere interference with the signals.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining the augmentation information comprises determining the perturbation caused by at least one of gravity of the Earth, solar pressure, tides, atmospheric drag, relativistic effects, crustal and tectonic motion, ionosphere interference or troposphere interference.

11. The method of claim 6 , comprising limiting the augmentation information based on geographic or temporal information.

12. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining first navigation observables by a navigation device from signals of one or more navigation beacons, the first navigation observables including information for determining a position, velocity and time (PVT) solution;
submitting the first navigation observables from the navigation device to a navigation server;
receiving crowd-sourced augmentation information by the navigation device from the navigation server in response, the augmentation information including corrections for perturbations in the first navigation observables that may reduce precision of the PVT solution, the crowd-sourced augmentation information being generated by the navigation server based on PVT solutions submitted by a plurality of navigation devices; and
determining, by the one or more processors, the PVT solution using second navigation observables and the augmentation information, including correcting the perturbations in the second navigation observables according to the augmentation information.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first and second navigation observables include at least one of a pseudorange, a carrier Doppler shift, a carrier phase measurement, a carrier to noise ratio, a signal power level, a signal sample, or a list of navigation beacons.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the augmentation information includes an ionosphere model usable for correcting ionosphere interference with the signals.

15. The system of claim 12 , the operations comprising presenting at least a portion of the PVT solution to a user of the navigation device.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the navigation beacons comprise at least one of a middleEarth orbit (MEO) satellite, a lowEarth orbit (LEO) satellite, a geostationary satellite, a geosynchronous satellite, a terrestrial beacon, an airborne beacon, or a submerged beacon.

17. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving navigation observables by a navigation server from a plurality of navigation devices, the navigation observables including information derived from signals of navigation beacons and for determining position, velocity and time (PVT) solutions;
determining, by the navigation server, a respective quality value of navigation observables from each navigation device based on a respective terrain associated with each respective PVT solution for each respective navigation device;
selecting one or more navigation observables of a navigation device from the received navigation observables of the plurality of navigation devices based on the quality values of the PVT solutions;
determining augmentation information using the selected one or more navigation observables, the augmentation information including corrections for perturbations in the navigation observables that may reduce precision of the PVT solutions; and
providing the augmentation information from the navigation server to one or more navigation devices.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the navigation observables include at least one of a pseudorange, a

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Miller Isaac T
• Ledvina Brent M

Classifications

• G01S19/396 Primary

  Determining accuracy or reliability of position or pseudorange measurements · CPC title

• G01S19/072 Primary

  Ionosphere corrections · CPC title

• G01S19/41

  Differential correction, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS] · CPC title

• G01S19/39 Primary

  the satellite radio beacon positioning system transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO · CPC title

• G01S19/07

  providing data for correcting measured positioning data, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS] or ionosphere corrections · CPC title