Ionospheric delay is the major source of satellite positioning system performance degradation. Designers of satellite positioning systems attempt to mitigate the impact of the ionospheric delay by deployment of correction models. For instance, the American GPS utilises a global standard (Klobuchar) model, based on the assumption that the daily distribution of GPS ionospheric delay values follows a biased cosine curve during day-time, while during the night-time the GPS ionospheric delay remains constant. Providing a compromise between computational complexity and accuracy, the Klobuchar model is capable of correcting up to 70% of actual ionospheric delay, mainly during quiet space weather conditions. Unfortunately, it provides a very poor performance during severe space weather, geomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances. In addition, a global approach in Klobuchar model development did not take into account particularities of the local ionospheric conditions that can significantly contribute to the general GPS ionospheric delay. Current research activities worldwide are concentrating on a better understanding of the observed GPS ionospheric delay dynamics and the relation to local ionosphere conditions.

Here we present the results of a study addressing daily GPS ionospheric delay dynamics observed at a Croatian coastal area of the northern Adriatic (position ϕ=45°N, λ=15°E) in the periods of quiet space weather in 2007. Daily sets of actual GPS ionospheric delay values were assumed to be the time series of composite signals, consisting of DC, cosine and residual components, respectively. Separate models have been developed that describe components of actual GPS ionospheric delay in the northern Adriatic for summer and winter, respectively. A special emphasis was given to the statistical description of the residual component of the daily distribution of GPS ionospheric delay, obtained by removing DC (bias) and cosine components from the composite GPS ionospheric delay.

Future work will be focused on further evaluation and validation of a quiet space weather GPS ionospheric delay model for the northern Adriatic, transition to a non-Klobuchar model, and on research in local GPS ionospheric delay dynamics during disturbed and severe space weather conditions.

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) establishes each year in its annual report the traditional “Black-Grey-White” lists of flags. These tables are based on processed performances of flags over a 3-year period, showing the full spectrum between quality flags and flags with a poor performance. The performance of each flag is calculated by the Paris MoU on the basis of inspected and detained ships flying the considered flag, using binomial calculus. Furthermore, black listed flags are one of the criteria, among others, used by the Paris MoU for targeting vessels for their inspections. Using the same binomial calculation method as mentioned above but considering casualties instead of detentions and a multivariate approach instead of considering the flag only, it is possible to extend the Black-Grey-White lists of flags of the Paris MoU based on detentions, to Black-Grey-White lists of categories of vessels with regard to their observed casualties for a given period.

At the time when a correspondence group has been set up by the Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation of IMO for defining “objectives, framework of mechanisms and methodology for a study on the combination of casualty and Port State Control related data”, this paper has the ambition to provide a valuable contribution to the group in discussions on the case for the necessity of combining casualty data and PSC related data with a view to complement current processing of flag State performance and the targeting criteria for ships inspections.

A method to compute the minimum Horizontal Protection Level (HPL) using the test statistic of normal distribution, which will exploit advances in computational power to meet the requirement of Time to Alert (TTA), is proposed to improve service availability. To obtain the minimum solution, two approximations used in traditional algorithms need exact solutions: the distribution of the horizontal position error and the determination of the worst case to ensure that the resulting HPL is able to accommodate all possible bias. This is validated with results such that the optimal solution is achieved with a pre-defined accuracy and sufficient computational efficiency. Also, the new HPL is used to determine if current approximated methods are conservative, where one of the methods does not meet the integrity requirement with given test statistics, error model and integrity risk definition.

Seafloor geodetic studies such as Global Positioning System (GPS)-Acoustic experiments often require the measurement platform on the sea surface to be positioned accurately to within a few centimetres. In this paper, we test the utility of Precise Point Positioning (PPP) for this application with two experiments. The first fixed platform experiment is a comparison between three independent processing software packages: Positioning and Navigation Data Analyst (PANDA), Global Navigation Satellite System-Inferred Positioning System and Orbit Analysis Simulation Software (GIPSY-OASIS), and the Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS)) and a more accurate solution based on conventional differential processing of a remote GPS station in the Aleutian Islands. The second moving platform experiment is a comparison among the three PPP software packages using 40 hours of ship navigation data collected during the Roger Revelle RR1605 cruise 170 nautical miles southwest of Palau in May 2016. We found the PPP solutions were repeatable to 5·49 cm in the horizontal components and 12·4 cm in the vertical component. This demonstrates not only that PPP is a useful tool for positioning marine platforms in remote locations, but also that modern ship navigation instruments such as the Kongsberg Seapath 330 + are suitable for seafloor geodetic application.

The feasibility of using a genetic algorithm to optimize a fuzzy fixed rule based autopilot is considered in this paper. Simulation results are presented to show the applicability of the approach. It is concluded such a procedure gives more credence to the resulting design than can be achieved by totally heuristic methods.

As a result of the general recognition given to the robustness qualities of fuzzy control algorithms, studies have been undertaken in the marine field to develop autopilots based on this approach. Indeed, a fuzzy autopilot was recently installed in a small leisure vessel and very successful fullscale sea trials were undertaken. In the past, the main problem in designing a fuzzy autopilot, or any other fuzzy controller, has been the reliance on purely heuristic methods to obtain an optimum solution. To compensate for such shortcomings in the design cycle analytical approaches are now being proposed.

The problem of how birds find their way can be examined by studying natural migration movements and also by forcing birds to undertake long journeys more or less under conditions which can be decided by the experimenter. The racing pigeon is an ideal subject for these homing experiments, but they have also been conducted with many species of wild bird and Fig. i shows some of the more remarkable flights that have been achieved with these. The use for these experiments of birds breeding in colonies has many advantages as large numbers can be caught and transported together, and their return watched for in a small area. Conspicuous birds such as gulls can be made individually recognizable by a code of plumage marks or by putting coloured leg rings on them.

In Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning, it is standard practice to apply the Fault Detection and Exclusion (FDE) procedure iteratively, in order to exclude all faulty measurements and then ensure reliable positioning results. Since it is often only necessary to consider a single fault in a Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) procedure, it would be ideal if a fault could be correctly identified. Thus, fault detection does not need to be applied in an iterative sense. One way of evaluating whether fault detection needs to be reapplied is to determine the probability of a wrong exclusion. To date, however, limited progress has been made in evaluating such probabilities. In this paper the relationships between different parameters are analysed in terms of the probability of correct and incorrect identification. Using this knowledge, a practical strategy for incorporating the probability of a wrong exclusion into the FDE procedure is developed. The theoretical findings are then demonstrated using a GPS single point positioning example.

In urban areas, Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy deteriorates due to signal degradation and multipath effects. To provide accurate and robust navigation in such GPS-denied environments, multi-sensor integrated navigation systems are developed. This paper introduces a 3D multi-sensor navigation system that integrates inertial sensors, odometry and GPS for land-vehicle navigation. A new error model is developed and an efficient loosely coupled closed-loop Kalman Filter (Extended KF or EKF) integration scheme is proposed. In this EKF-based integration scheme, the inertial/odometry navigation output is continuously corrected by EKF-estimated errors, which keeps the errors within acceptable linearization ranges which improves the prediction accuracy of the linearized dynamic error model. Consequently, the overall performance of the integrated system is improved. Real road experiments and comparison with earlier works have demonstrated a more reliable performance during GPS signal degradation and accurate estimation of inertial sensor errors (biases) have led to a more sustainable performance reliability during long GPS complete outages.

Safety in ice-covered polar waters can be optimised via the choice of a ship's route. This is of utmost importance for conventional as well as autonomous ships. However, the current state of the art in e-Navigation tools has left two open questions. First, what essential information are these tools still missing, and second, how they are seen by sea captains. In order to address these questions, we organised an ice navigation workshop to systematically collect routing justifications given by and waypoints planned by experienced sea captains that are particularly seasoned in ice navigation. Here, we report the outcome of that workshop. Our key findings include the reasoning and the commentary of the participants in looking for a better and safer route. These comments shed light upon both the official and unofficial code of conduct in open waters and boil down into a list of additional prerequisite information if further steps towards system autonomy are sought. Finally, the expert-planned waypoints are to be published alongside this paper to act as a benchmark for future maritime studies.

The paper provides a description of a method of drafting route plan templates on the basis of AIS (automatic identification system) historical data. The first section features a brief background on the problem of drafting route plan templates in the light of international regulations. The main section contains a description of the methods and tools used for processing AIS data into a GRID reference system: ship traffic intensity, average COG (course over ground) and average SOG (speed over ground) as well as route plan templates. The final section includes a presentation of the research method and an analysis of the results, conducted on the basis of maps with charted paths of drafted route plan templates. The summary constitutes a synthesis of general conclusions, the advantages and disadvantages of the solution as well as areas for further research to enhance the solution.

GPS-based land vehicle navigation systems are subject to signal fading in urban areas and require aid from other enabling sensors. A low-cost gyro-free inertial navigation system (INS) without accumulated attitude errors and complicated initializations could be an effective solution to the problem. This paper investigates a Constrained Navigation Algorithm (CNA) and the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique to compensate velocity output from a gyro-free INS. The vehicle's heading will be calibrated by a full circle test so that the magnetometer's bias and scale factor error could be removed. Experiments with a vehicle driven over level terrain have been conducted to assess the performance of the compensated gyro-free INS solutions. The effect of the architecture of Neural Network on prediction performance has also been discussed as well as the applicability of the proposed solution to land vehicle navigation with GPS outages.

Ship density is widely accepted as a basic and major indicator to reflect the marine traffic situation, but it has some limitations in representing the compactness and complexity of ship traffic. To overcoming these limitations, the paper proposes a novel ship density model based on the radial distribution function in molecular dynamics. The proposed model can identify the density and compactness of traffic around each ship and then map the ship density from a microscopic perspective. In addition, the proposed model can identify the global density and the complexity of ship traffic to some extent in the macroscopic perspective. Utilising case studies, the effectiveness of the proposed model is validated through the analysis of ship density in several regions in the Bohai Strait area. The proposed model is developed to help marine surveillance operators gain a better understanding of the traffic situation and to assist them in their work, eventually contributing to navigational safety.

For single point positioning solutions with multi-Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) constellations, the Position Dilution Of Precision (PDOP) and Time Dilution Of Precision TDOP) are quality measures to specify the additional multiplicative affect of measurement error on positioning accuracy and the timing accuracy, respectively. Considering the dimension of the unknown vector (including the three-dimensional positioning information of the receiver as well as the receiver clock biases related to these single constellations), this paper theoretically derives new formulae to describe the change of PDOP and TDOP. In addition, the detailed expressions of the variable quantity of the PDOP and TDOP are also obtained. The results show that if the dimension of the unknown vector is invariant in case of removing one or more satellites belonging to the existing tracked multi-GNSS constellations, both the PDOP and TDOP increase. On the other hand, if removing satellites reduces the dimension of the unknown vector, the PDOP neither increases nor decreases. However, the change of the TDOP is different, and it becomes smaller.

This work investigates the utilisation of Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) for the non-deterministic navigation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), allowing them to work cooperatively toward the goal of protecting a wide area against airborne attack. To negate the PSO's inherent weakness in dynamic environments, a neighbourhood scheme is proposed that not only enables the efficient interception of targets several times faster than the UAVs but also facilitates the maintenance of effective airspace coverage. Empirical results suggest that these techniques may indeed be of use in autonomous navigation systems for UAVs in air defence roles.

Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS) carrier phase-based precise positioning has been widely using in geodesy and surveying applications, and other high accuracy positioning and navigation applications in the last two decades. More Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are being developed and it is usually expected that combining GNSS will have a positive impact on positioning accuracy. This paper describes a case study carried out at Ningbo in China on the impact of multi-GNSS on RTK single epoch solutions. Both GPS and GLONASS are fully operational now. Moreover, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) can be observed at Ningbo. Currently, only one QZSS satellite “MICHIBIKI” is operational. This paper carries out an early assessment of the impact of QZSS on GPS and GLONASS single-epoch high precision positioning (i.e., single-epoch positioning accuracy assessment) and investigates the multipath errors in the GPS, GLONASS and QZSS multi-frequency data.

The objective of this paper is to investigate an online method to generate an optimal ascent trajectory for air-breathing hypersonic vehicles. A direct method called the Pseudo-spectral method shows promise for real-time optimal guidance. A significant barrier to this optimisation-based control strategy is computational delay, especially when the solution time of the non-linear programming problem exceeds the sampling time. Therefore, an online guidance algorithm for an air-breathing hypersonic vehicles with process constraints and terminal states constraints is proposed based on the Pseudo-spectral method and sensitivity analysis in this paper, which can reduce online computational costs and improve performance significantly. The proposed ascent optimal guidance method can successively generate online open-loop suboptimal controls without the design procedure of an inner-loop feedback controller. Considering model parameters' uncertainties and external disturbance, a sampling theorem is proposed that indicates the effect of the Lipschitz constant of the dynamics on sampling frequency. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method offers improved performance and has promising ability to generate an optimal ascent trajectory for air-breathing hypersonic vehicles.

To eliminate the effect of ocean currents for optimal path planning for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in the underwater environment, an intelligent algorithm is designed and proposed in this paper. The algorithm consists of two parts: an artificial potential field-based algorithm that derives the shortest path and avoids collision accidents; and an adjusting function that eliminates the effect of ocean currents. The planning results of the intelligent algorithm are presented in detail, and compared with the conventional algorithm that does not consider the effect of currents. The effectiveness of the optimised path planning method given in this paper is proved.

Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or inexpensive airplanes, such as a Cessna single engine aircraft, require a navigation system with a cheap, compact and precise sensor. Over the past ten years, GPS receivers have begun to be used as primary or alternative navigation sensors, because their use can significantly reduce the overall system cost. This paper describes a navigation system incorporating a velocity-based attitude estimation system with an attitude determination system using multiple antennae, which was implemented and tested using a UAV. The main objective was to obtain precise attitude information using low cost GPS OEM boards and antennae. Attitude boundaries are derived from the relationship between the body frame and the wind coordinates, which are used to validate the resolved cycle ambiguity in an Euler angle domain. Angular rate based on Doppler measurements was used to exclude the degenerate pseudo-roll angle information during severe uncoordinated flight. Searching for cycle ambiguity at every epoch of the flight showed that the developed system gave reliable cycle integer solutions, although the carrier phase measurement was subject to additional errors, such as multipath, external interference, and phase centre variation. A flight test was performed using a 1/4-scale Piper J3 Cub model, CMC Allstar OEM boards, OEM AT575-70 antennae, and 700 MHz PC104 board.

This paper is the second of a series of three papers, documenting the European studies into the feasibility of 1000 ft vertical separation minima above FL290. The paper discusses the vertical collision risk estimation methodology and an assessment of the collision risk against a target level of safety.

The analysis indicates the technical feasibility of a reduced vertical separation minima in the North Atlantic Region. However, for current operations and technical performance within European continental airspace, the risk estimation indicates that a 1000 ft minima is not technically feasible.

The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors concerned; they do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of the CAA or NLR.