The Boeing Company

Cody L Gruebele

Rongsheng Li

Chang Jin Yoo

Tung-Ching Tsao

Andrey Tolstov

Kenneth Cecil Clark

Methods and apparatus to reduce communications for position, navigation and timing (PNT) determinations are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus to enable PNT determination for a mobile station includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to identify features of signals of opportunity (SOOP) measured at a reference station, generate a model based on the identified features of the SOOP in conjunction with a position and a timing of the reference station, and provide at least one of the model or parameters associated with the model to the mobile station for the PNT determination.

Methods and apparatus to reduce communications for position, navigation and timing determinations

Sensor data fusion systems that provide noise reduction and fault protection. The sensor data fusion system fuses data acquired by respective accelerometers having different attributes. For example, one accelerometer has low noise and high bias, while another accelerometer has high noise and low bias when measuring specific force. The high-noise, low-bias accelerometer may be a gravimeter. Gravimeters and traditional accelerometers measure the same physical variable, i.e., specific force. By combining an expensive gravimeter and low-cost accelerometers, a synthetic sensor having both low noise and low bias may be achieved. Such synthetic sensors may be utilized in a gravity anomaly-referenced navigation system to achieve improved navigation performance.

Sensor data fusion system with noise reduction and fault protection

A terrain referenced navigation system for a vehicle is disclosed and includes an inertial measurement unit and one or more generic terrain sensors configured to collect terrain-dependent data. The terrain referenced navigation system includes one or more processors in electronic communication with the generic terrain sensors and the inertial measurement unit, and a memory coupled to the processors. The memory stores data into one or more databases and program code that, when executed by the processors, causes the terrain referenced navigation system to determine a predicted terrain value based on a terrain value, where the terrain value is retrieved from one or more sensor specific terrain databases. The pre-Kalman filter processing values are sent to a Kalman filter. The Kalman filter determines navigation corrections and sensor corrections based on the pre-Kalman filter processing values.

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Corona, CA, United States of America

Cody L Gruebele