Research And Application Of The Dynamic GPS Attitude Determination System

Globe Position System (GPS) is well known for determination of a vehicle position, velocity with high accuracy in real-time and all-weather conditions, and its 1PPS pulse signal for high accuracy clock. But it also provides the attitude and heading determination of vehicles as well, which is based on the theory of difference carrier phase by using special antennas array. Meanwhile, attitude determination using GPS is characterized by being simple, more economic and higher accuracy than the other navigation systems that depend on precise machines, and it works with error not increasing with time going. In theory, the longer the baseline is, the higher the accuracy is. But restricted by using conditions, the long baseline is not fit for some small space applications. So the attitude determination based on extra short baseline is becoming one of hottest topic in this field gradually.In this paper, various correlative GPS space reference frames in GPS measurement field and the principle of GPS signal constitution are introduced first. Secondly, GPS double-difference carrier phase theory is descript in detail. Finally, this paper does a research over attitude determination in application of ship pose using low cost GPS OEM and the technology of extra short antenna array. As taking a test on extra short baseline, an improved arithmetic is proposed, and its feasibility is validated by experiment. After the error analysis, the correction suggestion is given.So far, the technology of GPS navigation based on relative position is matured. As the development of carrier phase dynamic tracing technique, GPS attitude determination system is showing its great potential and advantages. Especially the extra short baseline attitude determination system that takes advantage of small size will be used in spaceflight attitude determination field.