Geolocal is a new navigation system conceived and patented in Brazil, whose purpose is to be independent of other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). It has an ‘inverted-GNSS’ configuration with at least four bases on the ground at known geodesic position coordinates and a repeater in space. Simulations were performed to determine the precision of Geolocal using different quantities and distributions of bases. They showed that this precision is enhanced when the quantity of bases increases, as long as the elevation angles of the new bases included are higher than the average and when the bases are evenly distributed around the repeater, but mainly when the time delay at the repeater is known in advance and when the measurement errors that generate uncertainties are reduced. The position dilution of precision (PDOP) was also calculated, confirming that precision is enhanced by the quantity of bases and by their distribution.

For maritime safety and security, vessels should be able to predict the trajectories of nearby vessels to avoid collision. This research proposes three novel models based on similarity search of trajectories that predict vessels' trajectories in the short and long term. The first and second prediction models are, respectively, point-based and trajectory-based models that consider constant distances between target and sample trajectories. The third prediction model is a trajectory-based model that exploits a long short-term memory approach to measure the dynamic distance between target and sample trajectories. To evaluate the performance of the proposed models, they are applied to a real automatic identification system (AIS) vessel dataset in the Strait of Georgia, USA. The models' accuracies in terms of Haversine distance between the predicted and actual positions show relative prediction error reductions of 40·85% for the second model compared with the first model and 23% for the third model compared with the second model.

The tight combination model improves the positioning accuracy of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in complex environments by increasing the redundancy of observation. However, the ambiguity cannot be calculated directly because of the correlation between it and the phase difference inter-system bias (DISB) in the model. This paper proposes a method of DISB estimation based on the principle of maximum ratio. From the data analysis, for the standard deviation of code DISB, the improvement of the method can up to 0·179 m with the poor quality data. In addition, compared to the parameter combination method, the standard deviation of all the phase DISB was deceased with the method in the paper. About the phase DISB of GPS L1/Galileo E1, the standard deviation decreased from 0·014/0·022/0·009/0·051 cycles to 0·006/0·015/0·004/0·029 cycles of four baselines, which represents the improvement of 57·14/31·82/55·56/43·14%. About the phase DISB of GPS L1/BDS B1, the standard deviation decreased from 0·014/0·061/0·010/0·052 cycles to 0·002/0·005/0·009/0·004 cycles of four baselines, which represents the improvement of 85·71/91·80/10·00/92·31%.

This study introduces a new real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning method which is suitable for baselines of different lengths. The method merges carrier-phase wide-lane, and ionosphere-free observation combinations (LWLC) instead of using pseudo-range, and carrier-phase ionosphere-free combination (PCLC), or single-frequency pseudo-range and phase combination (P1L1). In a first step, the double-differenced wide-lane ambiguities were calculated and fixed using the pseudo-range and carrier-phase wide-lane combination observations. Once the double-differenced wide-lane integer ambiguities were known, the wide-lane combined observations were regarded as accurate pseudo-range observations. Subsequently, the carrier-phase wide-lane, and ionosphere-free combined observations were used to fix the double-differenced carrier-phase integer ambiguities, achieving the final RTK positioning. The RTK positioning analysis was performed for short, medium, and long baselines, using the P1L1, PCLC, and LWLC methods, respectively. For a short baseline, the LWLC method demonstrated positioning accuracy similar to the P1L1 method, and performed better than the PCLC method. For medium and long baselines, the positioning accuracy of the LWLC method was slightly higher than those of the PCLC and P1L1 methods. In conclusion, the LWLC method provided high-precision RTK positioning results for baselines with different lengths, as it used high-precision carrier-phase observations with fixed ambiguities instead of low-precision pseudo-range observations.

Scouring and sedimentation effects on the seabed induced by ship propellers during ship manoeuvring near harbour structures affect both structure stability and ship manoeuvring capabilities. This contribution proposes solutions at an operational level using the automatic identification system (AIS) and a bridge simulator. Two new alternative manoeuvres were designed and tested on a bridge simulator to obtain expected maximum scour depth and the results were compared with that of real manoeuvres (i) using mooring lines, and (ii) with tug assistance. A total of 42 test scenarios combining several manoeuvres and meteorological conditions were reproduced. Results confirmed a clear reduction in erosion depth with the alternative manoeuvres, with total reduction when using the tugboat. The presented methodology can be very useful to port authorities to prevent the effects of ship erosion on harbour infrastructures.

As tugboats interact very closely with ships in restricted waters, the possibility of accidents increases in these operations. Despite the high accident possibility, there is a gap in studies on tugboat accidents. This study aims to analyse accidents involving tugboats using data mining. For this purpose, a tugboat accidents dataset consisting of a total of 496 accident records for the period from 2008 to 2019 was collected. Logistic regression and decision tree algorithms were implemented to the dataset. The results revealed that tugboat propulsion type is the most important and influential factor in the severity of tugboat accidents. The inferences drawn from these results could be beneficial for tugboat operators and port authorities in enhancing their awareness of the factors affecting tugboat accidents. In addition, the outputs of this study can be a reference for management units in developing strategies for preventing tugboat accidents and can also be used in effective planning for practicable prevention programmes and practices.

One critical issue in network real-time kinematic (NRTK) is the interpolation of atmospheric delay for user stations. Some classic interpolation algorithms, such as linear interpolation method (LIM), ignore the strong correlation between tropospheric delay and height factors, and the interpolation accuracy is poor in areas with large height difference. To solve this problem, a troposphere modelling method based on error compensation, namely ECDIM (Error Compensation-Based DIM), is proposed, and this method can be applied to both conventional single Delaunay triangulated network (DTN) and multi-station scenarios. The results of California Real Time Network (CRTN) with large height difference show that compared with LIM, the overall modelling accuracy with ECDIM has been improved by 50.1% to 67.3%, and especially for low elevation satellites (e.g., 10–20 degree), the accuracy is increased from tens of centimetres to a few centimetres. At user end, the positioning error in up direction with LIM has an obvious systematic deviation, and the fix rate of epoch is relatively low. This situation has been improved significantly after using ECDIM. The results of Tianjin Continuously Operating Reference System (TJCORS) show that in areas with small height difference, both methods have achieved high precision interpolation accuracy, and the positioning accuracy with ECDIM in up direction is improved by 21.2% compared with LIM.

Precise positioning with low-cost single-frequency global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers has great potential in a wide range of applications because of its low price and improved accuracy. However, challenges remain in achieving reliable and accurate solutions using low-cost receivers. For instance, the successful ambiguity fixing rate could be low for real-time kinematic (RTK) while large errors may occur in precise point positioning (PPP) in some scenarios (e.g., trees along the road). To solve the problems, this paper proposes a method with the aid of additional lane-level digital map information to improve the accuracy and reliability of RTK and PPP solutions. In the method, a digital camera will be applied for lane recognition and the positioning solution from a low-cost receiver will be projected to the digital map lane link. With the projected point position as a constraint, the RTK ambiguity fixing rate and PPP performance can be enhanced. A field kinematic test was conducted to verify the improvement of the RTK and PPP solutions with the aid of map matching. The results show that the RTK ambiguity fixing rate can be increased and the PPP positioning error can be reduced by map matching.

The fingerprint positioning (FP) algorithm has been investigated extensively owing to the fact that it can provide a relatively ideal indoor positioning result. However, the effectiveness of the fingerprint algorithm relies on the size of fingerprint database, which prevents the algorithm from being widely applied in practical applications. In this paper, an improved fingerprint algorithm with access point (AP) selection strategy and reference point (RP) selection strategy is proposed to reduce the size of the fingerprint database and improve the positioning accuracy. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the storage size of the fingerprint database by more than 42·64%. Moreover, compared with the FP algorithm, the fingerprint algorithm with segment characteristic distance (FP-SCD) and the fingerprint algorithm with RP selection strategy (FP-RPSS), the average positioning error of the proposed algorithm is reduced by 20·15%, 10·83% and 11·57%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed algorithm has a good application in real positioning scenarios.

Introducing the notion of a pseudoloxodrome, we generalise a single-heading navigation to conformally flat Riemannian manifolds, under the action of a perturbing vector field (wind, current) of arbitrary force. The findings are applied to time-optimal navigation with the use of the Euler–Lagrange equations. We refer to the Zermelo navigation problem admitting space and time dependence of both a perturbation and a ship's speed. The necessary conditions for single-heading time-optimal navigation are obtained and the pseudoloxodromes of minimum and maximum time are discussed. Furthermore, we describe winds which yield the pseudoloxodromic and loxodromic time extremals. Our research is also illustrated with the examples in dimension two emphasising the single-heading solutions among the time-optimal trajectories in the presence of some space-dependent winds.

Obstacle avoidance navigation for an unmanned surface vessel is a research focus for ship autonomy in which the real-time requirement in practical application is very serious, and always necessitates a complicated structure model to guarantee real-time performance. This paper proposes the grid cell activation model to reduce the complexity of modelling and to simplify an obstacle avoidance algorithm. Combined with the goal-oriented probability model to design a dynamic positive-loss-rate expectation evaluation function, it produces the proper strategy for obstacle avoidance. Case studies on multi-obstacle layouts and special circumstances are conducted and presented. The results indicate that the grid cell obstacle avoidance algorithm can effectively implement obstacle avoidance planning and ensure real-time requirements. A comparison with the potential field algorithm is performed, which shows good results and verifies the feasibility of the algorithm.

Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning in dense urban areas remains a challenge due to the signal reflection by buildings, namely multipath and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) reception. These effects degrade the performance of low-cost GNSS receivers such as in those smartphones. An effective three-dimensional (3D) mapping aided GNSS positioning method is proposed to correct the NLOS error. Instead of applying ray-tracing simulation, the signal reflection points are detected based on a skyplot with the surrounding building boundaries. The measurements of the direct and reflected signals can thus be simulated and further used to determine the user's position based on the measurement likelihood between real measurements. Verified with real experiments, the proposed algorithm is able to reduce the computational load greatly while maintaining a positioning accuracy within 10 metres of error in dense urban environments, compared with the conventional method of ray-tracing based NLOS corrected positioning.

Human fatigue is a major risk factor in transportation that contributes, directly or indirectly, to a large number of traffic accidents. Though many studies have investigated fatigue-inducing factors in transportation to manage human fatigue more efficiently, there are limited studies related to vessel traffic service (VTS). To fill this gap, this work aims to determine the key causal factors and symptoms of human fatigue with a focus on VTS operations. Achieving this aim is hindered by the problems of no standard definition of task-related fatigue and limited data sources. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a novel definition of task-related human fatigue, a task-driven approach for identifying causal factors and a causal network-based approach for selecting key causal factors. Twelve key causal factors of human fatigue in VTS were identified and analysed. In addition, it was found that VTS operators suffered from multidimensional fatigue, especially physical fatigue. The results provide a foundation and future directions for designing interventions to manage human fatigue.

The common view time transfer and two-way time and frequency transfer methods are currently the main means for achieving time synchronisation at nanosecond level. However, these methods have some limitations in real time and cost, which limit their wide applications in many fields, such as time synchronisation among base stations of the upcoming 5G network. In order to meet the requirements of nanosecond time synchronisation, a low-cost differential timing method is proposed in this paper by changing the manner of generation of traceability model parameters in GNSS navigation messages. The time deviation between GNSS system time and the timing laboratory that maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) kept by timing laboratory named k (UTC(k)) is monitored by receiving the GNSS signal in space with monitoring receivers. The new traceability model parameters are generated with the monitored time deviations and then broadcast to users through the GNSS navigation message. The precision of the one-way timing method can be improved from tens of nanoseconds to the order of several nanoseconds with the proposed method. In addition, there are obvious advantages to carry out this method on the geostationary satellites in the BeiDou navigation satellite (BDS) constellation. The proposed method is verified on an experimental platform based on the UTC(NTSC) time frequency signal and the geostationary satellites in the BDS-3 constellation.

During pulsar navigation, the high-frequency noise carried by the pulsar profile signal reduces the accuracy of the pulse TOA (Time of Arrival) estimation. At present, the main method to remove signal noise by using wavelet transform is to redesign the function of the threshold and level of wavelet transform. However, the signal-to-noise ratio and other indicators of the filtered signal need to be further optimised, so a more appropriate wavelet basis needs to be designed. This paper proposes a wavelet basis design method based on frequency domain analysis to improve the denoising effect of pulsar signals. This method first analyses the pulsar contour signal in the frequency domain and then designs a Crab pulsar wavelet basis (CPn, where n represents the wavelet basis length) based on its frequency domain characteristics. In order to improve the real-time performance of the algorithm, a wavelet lifting scheme is implemented. Through simulation, this method analyses the pulsar contour signal data at home and abroad. Results show the signal-to-noise ratio can be increased by 4 dB, the mean square error is reduced by 61% and the peak error is reduced by 45%. Therefore, this method has better filtering effect.

This paper analyses for the first time the impact of new GPS signals on positioning accuracy for dynamic urban applications, taking bus operations as an example. The performance assessment addresses both code measurement precision and positioning accuracy. The former is based on signal-to-noise ratio and estimation of multipath and noise by a combination of code and carrier phase measurements. The impact on positioning accuracy is derived by comparing the performance achievable with the conventional single frequency GPS only positioning both relative to reference trajectories from the integration of carrier phase measurements with data from a high grade inertial measurement unit. The results show that L5 code measurements have the highest precision, followed by L1 C/A and L2C. In the positioning domain, there is a significant improvement in two-dimensional and three-dimensional accuracy from dual frequency code measurements over the single frequency measurements, of 39% and 48% respectively, enabling more bus operation services to be supported.