Design of Message Formatting and Utilization Strategies for UAV-Based Pseudolite Systems Compatible with GNSS Receivers

This paper proposes a GNSS-compatible method for characterizing the motion of UAV-based navigation enhancement platforms, designed to provide reliable navigation and positioning services in emergency scenarios where GNSS signals are unavailable or severely degraded. The method maps UAV trajectories into standard GNSS navigation messages by establishing a correspondence between ephemeris parameters and platform positions through coordinate transformation and Taylor series expansion. To address modeling inaccuracies, the approach incorporates truncation error analysis and motion-assumption compensation via parameter optimization. This design enables UAV-mounted pseudolite systems to broadcast GNSS-compatible signals without modifying existing receivers, significantly enhancing rapid deployment capabilities in complex or degraded environments. Simulation results confirm precise positional representation in static scenarios and robust error control under dynamic motion through higher-order modeling and optimized broadcast strategies. UAV flight tests demonstrated a theoretical maximum error of 0.4262 m and an actual maximum error of 3.1878 m under real-world disturbances, which is within operational limits. Additional experiments confirmed successful message parsing with standard GNSS receivers. The proposed method offers a lightweight, interoperable solution for integrating UAV platforms into GNSS-enhanced positioning systems, supporting timely and accurate navigation services in emergency and disaster relief operations.

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Publication Details

Journal
Drones
Published
2025-07-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9080526
Primary Topic
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Design of Message Formatting and Utilization Strategies for UAV-Based Pseudolite Systems Compatible with GNSS Receivers

Guanbing Zhang, R. P. Guo, Yang Zhang, Hong Yuan et al.
Drones
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
article

Design of Message Formatting and Utilization Strategies for UAV-Based Pseudolite Systems Compatible with GNSS Receivers

Guanbing Zhang, R. P. Guo, Yang Zhang, Hong Yuan, Yi Lü
article en

Abstract

This paper proposes a GNSS-compatible method for characterizing the motion of UAV-based navigation enhancement platforms, designed to provide reliable navigation and positioning services in emergency scenarios where GNSS signals are unavailable or severely degraded. The method maps UAV trajectories into standard GNSS navigation messages by establishing a correspondence between ephemeris parameters and platform positions through coordinate transformation and Taylor series expansion. To address modeling inaccuracies, the approach incorporates truncation error analysis and motion-assumption compensation via parameter optimization. This design enables UAV-mounted pseudolite systems to broadcast GNSS-compatible signals without modifying existing receivers, significantly enhancing rapid deployment capabilities in complex or degraded environments. Simulation results confirm precise positional representation in static scenarios and robust error control under dynamic motion through higher-order modeling and optimized broadcast strategies. UAV flight tests demonstrated a theoretical maximum error of 0.4262 m and an actual maximum error of 3.1878 m under real-world disturbances, which is within operational limits. Additional experiments confirmed successful message parsing with standard GNSS receivers. The proposed method offers a lightweight, interoperable solution for integrating UAV platforms into GNSS-enhanced positioning systems, supporting timely and accurate navigation services in emergency and disaster relief operations.

DronesVol. 9(8)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Aerospace Information Research Institute (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 73%
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
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