Performance Characterization of GNSS/IMU/DVL Integration under Real Maritime Jamming Conditions

• Main Authors: Ralf Ziebold, Daniel Medina, Michailas Romanovas, Christoph Lass, Stefan Gewies
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-09-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: maritime navigation; GNSS; GNSS jamming; integrated navigation systems; Kalman filtering; Doppler velocity log; inertial sensors
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/9/2954

Currently Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) are the primary source for the determination of absolute position, navigation, and time (PNT) for merchant vessel navigation. Nevertheless, the performance of GNSSs can strongly degrade due to space weather events, jamming, and spoofing. Especially the increasing availability and adoption of low cost jammers lead to the question of how a continuous provision of PNT data can be realized in the vicinity of these devices. In general, three possible solutions for that challenge can be seen: (i) a jamming-resistant GNSS receiver; (ii) the usage of a terrestrial backup system; or (iii) the integration of GNSS with other onboard navigation sensors such as a speed log, a gyrocompass, and inertial sensors (inertial measurement unit—IMU). The present paper focuses on the third option by augmenting a classical IMU/GNSS sensor fusion scheme with a Doppler velocity log. Although the benefits of integrated IMU/GNSS navigation system have been already demonstrated for marine applications, a performance evaluation of such a multi-sensor system under real jamming conditions on a vessel seems to be still missing. The paper evaluates both loosely and tightly coupled fusion strategies implemented using an unscented Kalman filter (UKF). The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using the civilian maritime jamming testbed in the Baltic Sea.