Cooperative Algorithms and Techniques for Robust Positioning in GNSS Difficult Environments

Increasingly, major industry sectors are relying on continuous and trustworthy positioning information to enhance efficiency and safety.  Significantly, delivering a robust positioning capability in many operating environments (urban areas, indoors, etc) remains a challenge for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) - the primary positioning technology currently in use. Cooperative positioning (CP) techniques leverage the availability of a communications infrastructure to share information and data between objects within a neighbourhood.  Developed originally  for use across wireless sensor networks, CP techniques offer a viable solution for improving positioning performance for a range of applications. In this scenario, people and platforms operate as 'sensors'  that form an ad hoc network, sharing information sensed locally but also using relative measurements between objects. Using a number of cases studies, this presentation describes an initiative undertaken through the Working Group on Ubiquitous Positioning within the International Federation of Surveyors, Commission 5 and International Association of Geodesy, Commission 4.  It presents the architectures, scenarios and algorithms used traditionally for CP and identifies innovative concepts and directions for adapting and improving these algorithms using constraints and smart modelling techniques defined by the operating environment.