Robust positioning for efficient C2
Publish date: 2012-12-28
Report number: FOI-R--3599--SE
Pages: 31
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- Soldier positioning
- GPS-receivers
- foot-mounted INS
- SLAM
- sensor
- fusion
Abstract
A command and control support system for individual soldiers can provide them with improved navigation support and the possibility for blue-force-tracking within the squad. Such a system is expected to increase the soldiers safety, increase the operational tempo and possibly lead to a reduced number of friendly fire incidents. An accurate and reliable soldier positioning system is a core component in all command and control systems. Today it is anticipated that only military GPS-receivers fulfills the soldiers requirements regarding accuracy and reliability. Robust and reliable positioning of soldiers in all environments is a challenge yet to be solved. One problem with GPS-receivers is that the signals are very weak and intentional jamming is a viable threat. The accuracy and availability is also insufficient in urban environments (especially indoors). By integrating GPS-receivers with additional sensors, for instance inertial sensors, magnetometers and a barometric sensor, the ambition is to provide soldiers with highly accurate positioning systems suited for all environments, even indoors and during GPS-jamming. Different placements of the GPS-receiver has been tested during regular training exercises where GPS data loggers where placed on the forearm and helmet (including an external antenna) of the soldier. The number of satellites that the receivers managed to track were similar, regardless of the placement of the receiver. However, the position accuracy was higher for the helmet-mounted receiver, but it is still unclear if this is due to the actual placement or the higher quality of the external antenna. Foot-mounted inertial navigation systems have shown to yield high position accuracies in GPS-denied operations (e.g. indoors). During scenario-based exercises (simulated house-clearing) maximum position errors of below 3.5 meters were obtained. The technology is not mature enough for deployment at this point but it could become an interesting option for future soldier positioning systems. Initial controlled-environment tests also showed that the left and right feet gave systematic heading errors, which were probably caused by rotations of the feet during the detected stand-still periods. The position accuracy could be significantly increased by integrating two foot-mounted inertial navigation systems. The accuracy and robustness of the positioning system can also be improved by integrating the foot-mounted inertial navigation system with a stereo-camera based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) system. However, it is crucial that the different positioning systems are able to provide accurate estimates of their own uncertainties when performing the sensor fusion.