Performance Enhancement of Low-Cost INS/GPS Navigation System Operating in Urban Environments

As a result of the increasing usage of UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles) in urban environments for UAM (Urban Air Mobility) applications, the preciseness and reliability of PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) systems have critical importance for mission safety and success. With its high accuracy and global coverage, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) is the primary PNT source for UAM applications. However, GNSS is highly vulnerable to Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) blockages and multipath (MP) reflections, which are quite common, especially in urban areas. This study proposes a machine learning-based NLoS/MP detection and exclusion algorithm using GNSS observables to enhance position estimations at the receiver level. By using the ensemble machine learning algorithm with the proposed method, overall 93.2% NLoS/MP detection accuracy was obtained, and 29.8% accuracy enhancement was achieved by excluding these detected signals.