Positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) are essential for many critical infrastructures of our society. Positioning means knowing where you are and which way you are facing. For example, mobile phones use positioning to show your location on a map. Navigation helps you move from one place to another, like how cargo ships use navigation systems to travel safely across the ocean. Timing provides accurate and precise time, crucial for telecommunication networks, power grids, and financial systems.
GNSS is a global system that offers PNT services by transmitting signals from satellites orbiting around the Earth. GNSS receivers receive those transmitted signals to calculate a PVT solution. GNSS-based positioning is becoming increasingly important in many areas, such as road transport, maritime navigation, farming, and space exploration.
The reliability of GNSS receivers is not guaranteed. They encounter several challenges that can disrupt their synchronization with GNSS signals. These challenges include varying levels of noise, dynamics, fading effects, and interference. The researcher has developed an innovative adaptive control method to ensure the reliability of GNSS receivers even in difficult conditions.
“The tracking stage of a GNSS receiver manages the synchronization of the incoming GNSS signals, which is required to achieve a PVT solution. The proposed adaptive control method updates the configuration of the tracking stage depending on the signal characteristics, leading to a reliable synchronization and ensuring a continuous PVT,” says Iñigo Cortés.
The research was conducted at the Satellite-based Positioning Systems department at Fraunhofer IIS. The presented method is implemented and evaluated in the GOOSE© single board computer.
Iñigo Cortés, born in San Sebastián, Spain, works as a senior scientist in the Satellite-based Positioning Systems department at Fraunhofer IIS in Nürnberg, Germany. His main work is about hardware/software co-design and advanced low-complexity robust control feedback systems for GNSS receivers.
Public defence on Friday 31 May
The doctoral dissertation of M.Sc. Inigo Cortés in the field of Computing and Electrical Engineering titled Generalized Robust Adaptive Control Algorithm for GNSS Receivers will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University in room TB109 of the Tietotalo building (Korkeakoulunkatu 1, Tampere) at 12:00 on Friday 31 May 2024. The Opponent will be Dr.-Ing. Armin Dammann, Head of Mobile Radio Transmission Group at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The Custos will be Prof. Jari Nurmi, Tampere University.