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Crowd-Sourced Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Data for Indoor Positioning

ܳ:The Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), e.g. GPS, are main positioning technology for many Location-BasedService (LBS) applications, such as navigation and emergency services. While existing indoor positioning services, e.g.those based on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, do not provide a free, accurate, continuous, reliable and privacy-preserving or“GPS-like” indoor positioning service, inside the buildings, where people spend most of their time, GNSS signals can beblocked, attenuated or reflected, making indoor positioning unreliable or impossible.

This research proposes two novel techniques to provide a seamless (indoor/outdoor) GNSS-only positioning service.The first technique combines measurements over a short period of time, or at close-enough locations, to compute theuser’s position. It will be used when fewer than four satellites (absolute minimum requirement of GNSS-basedpositioning), are available at a particular time and location. The second technique, GNSS fingerprinting, extracts thespatio-temporal patterns from the signals, e.g. the obscuration/unavailability patterns of the satellites or the signalattenuationpatterns, from historical GNSS signals stored over time (potentially contributed by public and volunteers),orbital data, 3D model of city (i.e. obstructions and barriers). In the positioning mode, the newly received signals arematched with the stored database and the most likely location is found.

These step-changing techniques will enable:-researchers in many areas, e.g. intelligent mobility and smart city, to apply/extend the project’s concepts andtechniques,-wide public participation in research,-LBS (e.g. navigation, tracking, emergency, security, and special assistance services) to provide continuous and reliableservices, enhancing quality of, and potentially saving, lives.

Workflow/Deliverables:This project proposes two novel techniques to provide seamless (indoor-outdoor), continuous, free-to use, privacypreserving GNSS-based positioning services, requiring no further infrastructure or mobile device modification. Thiscan be used by many LBS applications, including life-saving emergency and security services.GNSS positioning in difficult environments, i.e. urban canyons and indoors, suffers from several types of error,including multipath, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signals, signal attenuation and signal blockage. GNSS signals can bereflected by urfaces of objects (NLOS) or blocked by objects e.g. buildings and trees, or attenuated with respect todistance travelled through an object or medium, e.g. windows, (signal attenuation). The reflected GNSS signals caninterfere with reception of the signals received directly from the satellites(multipath). Since GNSS positioning is basedon ranging measurements (i.e. time taken for the signal to get to the receiver from the satellite), NLOS, multipath andsignal attenuation can all cause positioning errors. Blockage of GNSS signals may result in a lack of availability of theminimum of four satellites in-view ((absolute minimum requirement of GNSS-based positioning) and consequentlylead to a failure in the continuity of the positioning service.

This project proposes two techniques, based on the concepts of a virtual spatial diversity antenna and GNSS signalfingerprinting. The first technique combines the raw GNSS observations (which have been made accessible recentlyon mobile devices running Android 7 and higher operating systems) over a short period of time, or at close-enoughlocations, to compute the user’s position. It will be used when fewer than four satellites, are available at a particulartime and location. This enables any currently available mobile devices to calculate position, by having moreobservations over a longer period of time or from another location that is close enough (depend on applications andscenarios) to be considered as one single point. Each epoch (set of observations) adds one more unknown, its clockoffset; therefore in total at least n+3 observations are required, where "n" is number of epochs. As the measurementsdo not have to be made at the same time, it can be applied in a collaborative or crowd-sourced scheme, wherespatially close users can share measurements and localise themselves. Crowd-sourced-gathered datasets andcollaborative positioning schemes can improve the quality and availability of input datasets.

Secondly, GNSS fingerprinting, extracts the spatio-temporal patterns from the raw measurements, e.g. theobscuration patterns of the satellites, and the signal attenuation. These patterns are extracted from historical GNSSsignals stored over time or contributed by the crowd, orbital data, 3D model of city, e.g. obstructions and barriers at ahigh level of detail (e.g. LoD4). In the positioning mode, the newly received signals are matched with the storeddatabase and the most likely location is found.

Project Workflow Diagram

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Dr Ana Basiri

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