Geodetic Kinematic Terrestrial Navigation using a MMS – Multi-constellation and multi-frequency Galileo/GPS/GLONASS performance comparisons

This paper presents a part of the research activities performed from 2019 to 2022 in the framework of WP 5.3 “Field campaign” and in particular, the activities “Land urban and extra-urban data measurement campaigns” of the European GRC-MS (Galileo Reference Center – Member States) Project - GSA/GRANT/04/2016. The dynamic data-collection campaigns were conducted by three participating member states (Portugal, Italy, and Romania), in three different environments: aerial, terrestrial, and maritime, respectively. This article presents a comparison of the results obtained for the terrestrial environment, considering the performance of Galileo used in conjunction with other GNSS systems, such as GPS, using different geodetic and navigational multi-constellation and multifrequency receivers/devices experimental dynamic activities. Starting from the user’s needs and requirements, the experimental setup and the methodology for the estimation of the reference («actual») trajectory are provided. These are complemented by numerical results and reasons for possible performance degradations analyses. The processed rover trajectories and the produced outputs were compared to the reference trajectory obtained from GNSS/INS (INertial System) integrated high-performance solution. Galileo-only and GPS-only solutions, so as multi-system solutions (GPS+Galileo, GPS+GLONASS and GPS+GLONASS+Galileo) were analysed. PVT (Position Velocity Time) solutions were computed using post-processing geodetic interferential techniques. From the performed analyses, some preliminary conclusions relative to the Galileo performances applied to terrestrial urban and extraurban navigation were derived. These activities need to be continued in the near future, taking into consideration the Galileo constellation improvements and the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) applications in order to improve the offered services and the road safety.