How GPS Works

October 24th – 25th 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

Presented by:
Shamus McDonnell

®
The Pipeline Professionals
 Why Was GPS Developed
• Trying to figure out where you are and where
you're going is probably one of man's oldest
pastimes.
• Navigation and positioning are crucial to so many
activities and yet the process has always been
quite cumbersome.
• Over the years all kinds of technologies have tried
to simplify the task but every one has had some
disadvantage.
 Historic Navigation Systems
• Landmarks: Only work in local area. Subject to movement or destruction by
environmental factors. Example: Big oak tree on the side of the road.
• Celestial: Complicated. Only works at night in good weather. Limited precision. Example:
Looking at Syrius at night.
• Dead Reckoning: Very complicated. Accuracy depends on measurement tools which are
usually relatively crude. Errors accumulate quickly. Example: A piece of land for fix location.
Essentially it is used to estimate an object's position based on the distance it traveled in its
current direction from its previous position.
• LORAN: (LOng RAnge Navigation)Limited coverage (mostly coastal). Accuracy variable,
affected by geographic situation. Easy to jam or disturb. LORAN systems were up and
running during World War II and were used extensively by the US Navy and Royal Navy. It
was originally known as "LRN" for Loomis radio navigation, after millionaire and physicist
Alfred Lee Loomis, who invented LORAN and played a crucial role in military research and
development during WWII.
• OMEGA: Based on relatively few radio direction beacons. Accuracy limited and subject to
radio interference. Example: As of September 30, 1997, 0300 UT, the OMEGA Navigation
System terminated. The OMEGA radionavigation system, developed by the United States
Navy for military aviation users, was approved for full implementation in 1968 and
promised a true worldwide oceanic coverage capability and the ability to achieve a four mile
accuracy when fixing a position. Initially, the system was to be used for navigating nuclear
bombers across the North Pole to Russia. Later, it was found useful for submarines.
 What is GPS?
• The Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS)
satellite network built by the U.S. Department of
Defence and operated by the U.S. Air Force to
provide highly accurate navigation information to
military forces around the world. The network is
also being used by a growing number of
commercial products.
 What does GPS do?
• The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based
navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites
placed into orbit around the earth by the U.S.
• GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world,
24 hours a day.
• There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.
• GPS satellites circle the earth in a very precise orbit and
transmit signal information.
• GPS receivers make use of triangulation to calculate the user's
exact location. Essentially, the GPS receiver compares the time
a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was
received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far
away the satellite is. With distance measurements from a few
more satellites, the receiver can determine the user's position.
 Why Did the Department of
Defense Develop GPS?
• In the latter days of the arms race the targeting of ICBMs
became such a fine art that they could be expected to land
right on an enemy's missile silos. Such a direct hit would
destroy the silo and any missile in it. The ability to take out
your opponent's missiles had a profound effect on the
balance of power.
• But you could only expect to hit a silo if you knew exactly
where you were launching from. That's not hard if your
missiles are on land, as most of them were in the Soviet
Union. But most of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was at sea on
subs. To maintain the balance of power the U.S. had to come
up with a way to allow those subs to surface and fix their
exact position in a matter of minutes anywhere in the world.
 What Makes up the GPS System
• The GPS space segment consists of 24 satellites (space vehicles),
distributed into six orbital planes, requiring a minimum of four
satellites in each, to operate.
• The GPS control segment consists of:
– five monitoring stations:
• Hawaii, Kwajalein,
• Ascension Island,
• Diego Garcia,
• Colorado Springs
– three ground antennas:
• Ascension Island,
• Diego Garcia,
• Kwajalein
– Master Control station located at Schriever AFB in Colorado.
The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System is managed by the
NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office at the Space and Missile
Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California.
Other Space Based nav systems
Other satellite navigation systems in use or various states of
development include:
• Galileo – a global system being developed by the European
Union and other partner countries, planned to be operational by
2014

• Beidou – People's Republic of China's regional system, covering

Asia and the West Pacific
• COMPASS – People's Republic of China's global system,
planned to be operational by 2020

• GLONASS – Russia's global navigation system

• IRNSS – India's regional navigation system, planned to be

operational by 2012, covering India and Northern Indian Ocean

• QZSS – Japanese regional system covering Asia and Oceania

What do the GPS Satellites transmit?
• GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals,
designated L1 and L2. The signals travel by line of
sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass
and plastic but will not go through most solid
objects such as buildings and mountains.
• A GPS signal contains three different bits of
information:
– a pseudorandom code,
– ephemeris data and
– almanac data.
 The GPS Radio Messages
• The pseudorandom code is simply an I.D. code that
identifies which satellite is transmitting information.
• Ephemeris data contains important information about
the status of the satellite (healthy or unhealthy), current
date and time. This part of the signal is essential for
determining a position.
• The almanac data tells the GPS receiver where each
GPS satellite should be at any time throughout the day.
Each satellite transmits almanac data showing the
orbital information for that satellite and for every other
satellite in the system.
 The GPS Radio Messages
• The ephemeris is updated every 2 hours and is
generally valid for 4 hours, with provisions for
updates every 6 hours or longer in non-nominal
conditions.
• The almanac is updated typically every 24 hours.
Additionally data for a few weeks following is
uploaded in case of transmission updates that
delay data upload.
 The GPS Satellites
Starting in 1978 the U.S. military began placing GPS satellites in orbit
about 12,000 miles above the earth. It took until 1994 to orbit 24
satellites, the number needed to calculate someone's position anywhere
in the world. Today, there are 29 satellites in NAVSTAR. The extra 5
are backups in case one of the primary 24 breaks down. The Air Force
continues to launch new satellites equipped with the latest technology
to replace aging orbiters. The newest GPS satellite currently is the
Block IIF, first launched in 2007.
 The Satellites

• The satellites—weighing 2,000 to 4,000 pounds apiece

and measuring 17 feet across with their solar panels
extended—share the same six orbits, so that each
satellite is following in the trail of others.
• Speeding along at 7,000 mph, they circle the earth twice
a day.
• They are spaced so that at least four satellites are always
visible no lower than 15 degrees above the horizon
from any spot on the planet. Usually a single GPS receiver
can detect more than four.
 The Control Segment
Also part of the system is a master control station
located in Colorado Springs, and five unstaffed monitor
stations at locations around the world. It's the stations'
job to track each satellite's orbit precisely, and if they find
one of the spacecraft straying from its designated orbit
they send commands to the satellite's booster rockets,
which execute small burns to nudge the satellite back on
track.
 How GPS Works
• At its simplest, the Global Positioning System—GPS—is no
harder to understand than those junior high math problems
that began, "If Train A leaves Chicago traveling at 85 miles an
hour…" GPS is no more than measuring time and distance to
determine where you are. But when it comes to the nitty-
gritty—the actual measuring—there are so many
measurements to be made over such vast distances and so
many gotchas lurking in those measurements that without the
benefit of high tech you could easily be thrown off by half a
continent.

• The simple explanation behind GPS is this: If you know how

far away you are from three known points, you can use high
school math to determine exactly where you are. Here's how it
works when those known points and those measurements
come from outer space.
 The Satellite Broadcast
As the GPS satellites circle our planet, they all sing two
endless songs in unison. The songs are loops of code and
data called L1 and L2. They beam out in all directions
over the 1.57542-GHz frequency(L1 signal) and 1.2276
GHz (L2 signal), through a low-power, 50-watt radio
transmitter. Their audience is tens of millions of passive
GPS receivers found in our cars, phones, boats, watches,
and even dog collars.
 Satellite Message Encoding
• All satellites broadcast at the same frequencies.
Signals are encoded using code division multiple
access (CDMA) allowing messages from individual
satellites to be distinguished from each other based
on unique encodings for each satellite (that the
receiver must be aware of).
• Two distinct types of CDMA encodings are used:
– coarse/acquisition (C/A) code, which is accessible
by the general public, and
– precise (P) code, that is encrypted so that only the
U.S. military can access it.
 The Satellite Broadcast
• All satellites broadcast at the same two frequencies, 1.57542 GHz
(L1 signal) and 1.2276 GHz (L2 signal). The satellite network uses a
CDMA spread-spectrum technique where the low-bitrate message
data is encoded with a high-rate pseudo-random (PRN) sequence
that is different for each satellite. The receiver must be aware of the
PRN codes for each satellite to reconstruct the actual message data.
• The C/A code, for civilian use, transmits data at 1.023 million
chips per second, whereas the P code, for U.S. military use,
transmits at 10.23 million chips per second. The L1 carrier is
modulated by both the C/A and P codes, while the L2 carrier is
only modulated by the P code.
• The P code can be encrypted as a so-called P(Y) code that is only
available to military equipment with a proper decryption key.
• Both the C/A and P(Y) codes impart the precise time-of-day to the
user.
 The Coarse Acquisition Code

• Each satellite uses a unique Pseudo Random Noise (PRN)

code for spread spectrum modulation.
• The C/A code is 1024 bits in length, and is sent at a 1 MHz
rate. Thus the code repeats every millisecond.
• The noise like code modulates the L1 carrier signal at
1575.42 MHz. The signal is spread over a 1 MHz bandwidth.
 The Coarse Acquisition Code
• Your GPS syncs with each satellite by shifting the
timing of the start of an internally generated PRN
code.

The time offset between the receiver clock and the satellite message is the
time of flight and that can be multiplied by the speed of light to determine
the distance to the satellite. Therefore, the measured time offset or difference
= distance/range to the satellite.
 CDMA
• One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing
several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single
communication channel. This allows several users to share a band of
frequencies. This concept is called multiple access. CDMA employs spread-
spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter
is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same
physical channel. By contrast, time division multiple access (TDMA)
divides access by time, while frequency-division multiple access (FDMA)
divides it by frequency. CDMA is a form of spread-spectrum signalling,
since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than
the data being communicated.
• An analogy to the problem of multiple access is a room (channel) in which
people wish to talk to each other simultaneously. To avoid confusion,
people could take turns speaking (time division), speak at different pitches
(frequency division), or speak in different languages (code division).
CDMA is analogous to the last example where people speaking the same
language can understand each other, but other languages are perceived as
noise and rejected. Similarly, in radio CDMA, each group of users is given
a shared code. Many codes occupy the same channel, but only users
associated with a particular code can communicate.
 GPS Location
You'll often come across the mathematical algorithm a GPS system uses to
pinpoint a position called triangulation. That's incorrect. Triangulation uses
angle measurements and at least one known distance to calculate where
something is. The more correct term is trilateration, a process that uses the
geometry of triangles, the known locations of two or more reference points,
and the distances from the unknown point to those known locations.

Actually, trilateration still isn't the best term either, because it refers to using information
from three known locations—three satellites. Three satellites really aren't enough for
accurate calculations. A GPS device receiving signals from four or more satellites can
calculate a 3D position that includes latitude, longitude, and altitude. So “multilateration”
would be a more accurate description.
 A 2 Dimensional Example
• Time for the signal to reach
GPS receiver is determined.
• Distance is computed by
multiplying by the speed of light.
• Distance from two satellites defines 2 points (in
2 dimensional space.)
 A 2 Dimensional Example
• The distance from a third
satellite narrows the
location to an
“error triangle.”
 A 2 Dimensional Example
• Assume the error in each of our measurements
is a constant, k.
• Solve for k, so that the
“error triangle” is as
small as possible.
 Now for 3 Dimensions
• Distance from a single satellite locates a position
somewhere on a sphere.
 Now for 3 Dimensions
• Two measurements put the
location somewhere on a
circle at the intersection
of the two spheres.
 Now for 3 Dimensions
• Three measurements put
the location at one of two
points at the intersection
of the three spheres.
 Now for 3 Dimensions
• A fourth measurement selects
one of the two points, and
provides enough
information to solve for
the constant error.
 Location Calculations
By any name, this is how basic GPS calculations work.
• When a GPS receiver has locked on to signals from at
least three satellites—four is better, and six or seven is
better still—it uses the phase shift of the satellites'
pseudorandom code to calculate the distance to each
satellite.
• Because the almanac data that the receiver has
downloaded from the satellites includes up-to-date
coordinates for the satellites' positions, it's possible to
create virtual spheres around each of the satellites. The
imaginary spheres' radii are equal to the distances from
the GPS receiver to each of the satellites.
 Location Calculations
If the receiver calculates only one
sphere, that sphere's surface will
intersect a large circle on the
surface of the earth. Because the
distance from the satellite to the
sphere's surface is the same all
along the circle's circumference.

The receiver could theoretically be

anywhere on that imaginary circle.
 Location Calculations
Where the receiver calculates
only one other satellite-based
sphere, the surface circle
created by the new sphere
intersects the first sphere's
circle and the earth at two
points, shown in the
illustration as yellow dots.

A sphere from a third satellite resolves the ambiguity. There

is only one point—red in the illustration—where the
surfaces of the three virtual spheres meet on the surface of
the earth.
 So why is it better to take readings from
a fourth satellite?
• The earth itself, although it doesn't have a satellite at its center, is a
fourth sphere that must be a part of the calculations. But more to
the point, using only three satellites inevitably involves timing error
that leads to inaccurate measurements. If you add a fourth satellite,
its sphere will not intersect at the same point as the other three.
That permits the receiver to figure out the timing error and factor
it into the calculations of the other spheres.

• And finally, this entire discussion has been based on an unspoken

assumption that the GPS receiver is on the surface of the earth,
most likely at sea level. But if you want to calculate the altitude of
an airplane or how high some mountaineers have climbed, you
need a fourth satellite to yield that dimension.
The Orbits and Satellites
 How GPS Receivers Work
• Older GPS receivers had only a single channel. That
channel had to divide its time rotating among the
satellites, picking up pieces of signals from each.
• Most new GPS receivers have a parallel, multichannel
design. That means the receiver has between 5 and 12
receiver circuits, each locked onto a particular satellite
and all of them operating at the same time.
• When a receiver circuit detects a satellite's broadcast,
the GPS device uses the ephemeris and almanac data
to set its own clock and saves the data for use when
it's called upon to calculate its position. When the
unit's receivers have locked onto at least four
satellites, the receiver can begin navigating through
the process of trilateration (or multilateration).
 How GPS Receivers Work
• The first step is for the receiver to determine how far away
each satellite is. To do this, each of the receiver circuits, in
effect, tries to sing along with its designated satellite. The
receiver generates the same pseudorandom code that the
satellite is broadcasting, beginning at the same time as the
satellite begins transmitting the next loop of the code.
• Even though the code from the satellite is rushing to the
receiver at the speed of light—186,000 miles a second—and
has to cover a distance of only 12,000 to 15,000 miles, there
is still a measurable delay.
• If a satellite were right overhead, the travel time would be something
like 0.06 second.
• The result is that the satellite's code and the receiver's code
will be out of sync. The cure for that is code phase.
 Code Phase
The receiver moves its signal through time by shifting
the signal pattern and adding the electrical values of
the two patterns at parallel points. Wherever the
added values are highest is where the codes are in
phase—synced. Subtracting the time at that point
from the original time before the pattern was moved
tells the receiver how long it took the radio signals to
travel from the satellite to the receiver.
The receiver multiplies that time
difference by the speed of light
and gets the approximate
distance, or range as it's called in
GPS circles, from the satellite to
the receiver.
 Fine Tuning
• Unlike the satellites, GPS receivers do not have atomic
clocks. Adding one would increase a receiver's price by
about $75,000.
• This illustration shows how three circles that are
supposed to intersect at the same point—a car
represented by the black dot—can be considerably off
because of timing errors.
To correct the measurements, the receiver
compares the sizes of the spheres.
Because a timing error would have been
applied to all the satellite-based spheres
equally, they are all off by the same
percentage. The receiver increases the size
of the spheres equally until calculations
show they are all touching at the same
point.
 Receiver Acquisition
• If the almanac information has previously been acquired,
the receiver picks the satellites to listen for by their PRNs,
unique numbers in the range 1 through 32.
• If the almanac information is not in memory, the receiver
enters a search mode until a lock is obtained on one of the
satellites. To obtain a lock, it is necessary that there be an
unobstructed line of sight from the receiver to the satellite.
The receiver can then acquire the almanac and determine the
satellites it should listen for. As it detects each satellite's
signal, it identifies it by its distinct C/A code pattern. There
can be a delay of up to 30 seconds before the first estimate
of position because of the need to read the ephemeris data.
• Processing of the navigation message enables the
determination of the time of transmission and the satellite
position at this time.
 GPS Limitations –
Fewer than 4 satellites visible
• Your GPS needs to be able to receive a strong signal from at least 4
satellites to report an accurate position
• Problems could be caused by…
– The sky is obscured by canyon walls, mountains, or tall buildings.
– Dense tree canopy. Especially if it’s wet.
– Antenna is shielded by metal from a car, aircraft or building.
– Low batteries may reduce receiver sensitivity.
 Rating GPS Fix
• GPSPDOP – Dilution of precision (DOP) or Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP) is a GPS
term used in geomatics engineering to describe the geometric strength of satellite configuration on GPS
accuracy. When visible satellites are close together in the sky, the geometry is said to be weak and the DOP
value is high; when far apart, the geometry is strong and the DOP value is low. Thus a low DOP value
represents a better GPS positional accuracy due to the wider angular separation between the satellites used
to calculate a GPS unit's position. Variants of DOP include HDOP, VDOP, PDOP and TDOP
respectively, for Horizontal, Vertical, Position (3-D) and Time Dilution of Precision. These quantities
follow mathematically from the positions of the usable satellites on the local sky. The default, no-fix DOP
is set to 50, and any DOP below 6 is considered acceptable. DOP Values:
– 1 = Ideal. This is the highest possible confidence level to be used for applications demanding the highest
possible precision at all times.
– 2-3 = Excellent. At this confidence level, positional measurements are considered accurate enough to
meet all but the most sensitive applications.
– 4-6 = Good. Represents a level that marks the minimum appropriate for making business decisions.
Positional measurements could be used to make reliable in-route navigation suggestions to the user.
– 7-8 = Moderate. Positional measurements could be used for calculations, but the fix quality could still be
improved. A more open view of the sky is recommended.
– 9-20 = Fair. Represents a low confidence level. Positional measurements should be discarded or used
only to indicate a very rough estimate of the current location.
– 21-50 = Poor. At this level, measurements are inaccurate and should be discarded
• GPSHDOP – Num - (1): Horizontal Dilution of precision (HDOP); see GPSPDOP
• GPSVDOP – Num - (1.3): Vertical Dilution of precision (HDOP); see GPSPDOP
 Rating GPS Fix
• GPSHRMS – The GPS Horizontal Root Mean Square, expressed in feet or meters. In
mathematics, the root mean square (abbreviated RMS or rms), also known as the
quadratic mean, is a statistical measure of the magnitude of a varying quantity. It can be
calculated for a series of discrete values or for a continuously varying function. The name
comes from the fact that it is the square root of the mean of the squares of the values. It
is a special case of the power mean with the exponent p = 2.
• GPSVRMS – The GPS Vertical Root Mean Square, expressed in feet or meters. See
GPSHRMS.
• GPSSatellites – The number of satellites incorporated into the calculation of position
by the GPS. Generally speaking, the more satellites incorporated into the calculation, the
lower the PDOP, although sometimes fewer, in a better configuration, is better than more
in poor configuration.
• GPSCourse – The Bearing of the GPS receiver at the time of the coordinate being
recorded; 0 indicates insignificant data for bearing calculation, or no data available, 360
is true north.
• GPSSpeed – The velocity of the GPS receiver at the time of the coordinate being
recorded; -1 indicates insignificant data for velocity calculation, or no data available.
 GPS Errors
• The GPS is far from perfect. Although light and radio waves travel at 186,000
miles a second in a vacuum, they are slowed down, minutely but measurably,
when they pass through the earth's ionosphere and troposphere. This is called
propagation delay. The more oblique the angle at which the satellite signals
enter the atmosphere, the longer the it takes them to reach a GPS receiver.
The signals' travel times are also lengthened when they bounce off buildings,
hills, and trees before reaching the receiver, a phenomenon called multipath.
• The wavelength of the bits, or cycles, of the pseudorandom code, is so large
that even when the two code patterns are in phase there's still a lot of wiggle
room in the measurement of time. The smallest measurement that can be
made using code phase is 1 millisecond. But at the speed of light, that
millisecond can result in a 300-meter error.
 GPS Errors
• Ionosphere and troposphere delays - The satellite signal slows as it passes through the
atmosphere. The GPS system uses a built-in model that calculates an average amount of delay
to partially correct for this type of error.
• Signal multipath - This occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off objects such as tall
buildings or large rock surfaces before it reaches the receiver. This increases the travel time of
the signal, thereby causing errors.
• Receiver clock errors - A receiver's built-in clock is not as accurate as the atomic clocks
onboard the GPS satellites. Therefore, it may have very slight timing errors.
• Orbital errors - Also known as ephemeris errors, these are inaccuracies of the satellite's
reported location.
• Number of satellites visible - The more satellites a GPS receiver can "see," the better the
accuracy. Buildings, terrain, electronic interference, or sometimes even dense foliage can block
signal reception, causing position errors or possibly no position reading at all. GPS units
typically will not work indoors, underwater or underground.
• Satellite geometry/shading - This refers to the relative position of the satellites at any given
time. Ideal satellite geometry exists when the satellites are located at wide angles relative to
each other (Low PDOP). Poor geometry results when the satellites are located in a line or in a
tight grouping (high PDOP).
• Intentional degradation of the satellite signal - Selective Availability (SA) is an intentional
degradation of the signal once imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense. SA was intended
to prevent military adversaries from using the highly accurate GPS signals. The government
turned off SA in May 2000, which significantly improved the accuracy of civilian GPS
receivers.
 Ionosphere Errors
The ionosphere is much more variable than the atmosphere. It
most dramatic variation is from day to night. It essentially goes
away late at night. It rebuilds quickly at dawn and then intensifies
thought the day. Its decay after sunset is gradual. Maps of the
peak electron density of the ionosphere are shown in Figures 4
and 5. These values are proportional to the ionospheric error.
The plots are for 1800 UT, when sunrise is in the Pacific and
sunset over the zero of longitude line. Sunrise at 300 km occurs
before it does on the ground.
GPS Corrections – Differential GPS (DGPS)
Assuming that two GPS receivers are close to each other (0–50 km), the different
errors reducing the positioning accuracy (mainly atmospheric disturbance) affect both
receivers the same way and with the same magnitude.

If the exact location of one receiver is known (base receiver), this information can be
used to calculate errors in the measurement and then report these errors (or correction
values) to the other receiver with unknown position (rover receiver), so that it could
compensate for them. This technique is called differential mode.

This differential mode removes almost all errors except multipath (fake reflected
signals) and receiver errors, because they are local to each receiver. The receiver error is
typically about 10 cm for standard DGPS (differential code). If range errors are
transmitted from the base receiver to the rover in real-time (radio link), then the
system is called real-time DGPS.

If real time results are not needed, the measurement are time tagged and recorded in
the base and rover receivers and later transferred to a computer to correct the data and
calculate an accurate position of the rover at each instant (post processed DGPS).
 DGPS Range
The normal limitation on
the utility of DGPS
corrections is the
difference in the
ionospheric error seen by
the reference station and
the user. This ionospheric
error is determined by the
ionospheric conditions
where the line of sight
passes through 300 to 400
km altitude. For a vertical
ray, this is overhead. For a
low elevation ray it can be
1500 km away (about 15
degrees of earth central
angle).
 Methods of DGPS
The most simple DGPS method is to deploy a receiver as the base on
a local survey control monument. The base is programmed with the
exact latitude, longitude and elevation for that position and can then
measure the error in the range measurement from each satellite. The
error correction can then be used in one of two ways:
• Post Processed DGPS – the GPS data is recorded along with
time data to allow post process correction of the rover data – the
rover user works autonomously and does not know actual
precision until post processing is completed.
• Real-time DGPS - occurs when the base station calculates and
broadcasts corrections for each satellite as it receives the data. The
correction is received by the roving receiver via a radio signal if
the source is land based or via a satellite signal if it is satellite
based and applied to the position it is calculating. As a result, the
position displayed and logged to the data file of the roving GPS
receiver is a differentially corrected position.
 DGPS Services
DGPS is often used to refer specifically to systems
that re-broadcast the corrections from ground-based
transmitters of shorter range. This might be an
independently owned and operated, temporary base
station, or a permanent service.
There are commercially
available or sometimes free
services available for real
time or post processing data
sources. These can be found
through the internet and with
or with out subscription fees
the user can access real time
radio corrections or
download base logs from the
internet for post processing.
 DGPS Services
GPS range corrections are also being broadcast via raido
signal from orbiting satellites instead of ground-based
transmitters. These systems are called Satellite Based
Augmentation System or Space Based Augmentation. Different
versions of this system include:
• WAAS – the FAA’s Wide Area Augmentation System
• EGNOS - European Geostationary Navigation Overlay
Service
• MSAS - Japan's Multi-Functional Satellite Augmentation
System
• Canada's CDGPS
• Commercial: VERIPOS, StarFire and OmniSTAR.
 DGPS Service Messages
The Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services
(RTCM), a nonprofit scientific and educational organization
that serves all aspects of maritime radio communications,
radio navigation, and related technologies, defined the
differential data protocol for relaying GPS correction
messages from a base station to a field user. Its Special
Committee 104 (RTCM SC-104) format recommendations
define the correction message format. Each correction
message includes data about the station position and health,
satellite constellation health, and the correction to be
applied. Using real-time differential corrections allows
navigation to within one to two meters of any location
depending on the service and the GPS receiver.
 Singe Frequency VS Dual Frequency
• Dual Frequency GPS Receivers use the signal from
both the L1 and L2 GPS frequencies. Even though the
L2 code data are encrypted, the signal's carrier wave
enables correction of some ionospheric errors. These
dual-frequency GPS receivers typically cost US$10,000
or more, but can have positioning errors on the order
of one centimeter or less when used in carrier phase
differential GPS mode.
• Combined with local real time differential correction
data, these receivers are used to make up the RTK
GPS.
• OmniStar offers a dual frequency DGPS subscription
service, that offers sub 10cm accuracy.
 RTK DGPS
• Single frequency, or “normal" satellite navigation receivers compare a
pseudorandom signal being sent from the satellite with an internally
generated copy of the same signal. Since the signal from the satellite takes
time to reach the receiver, the two signals do not "line up" properly; the
satellite's copy is delayed in relation to the local copy. By progressively
delaying the local copy more and more, the two signals will eventually line
up properly. That delay is the time needed for the signal to reach the
receiver, and from this the distance from the satellite can be calculated.
• The accuracy of the resulting range measurement is generally a function of
the ability of the receiver's electronics to accurately compare the two
signals. In general receivers are able to align the signals to about 1% of one
bit-width. For instance, the coarse-acquisition (C/A) code sent on the
GPS system sends a bit every 0.98 microsecond, so a receiver is
accurate to 0.01 microsecond, or about 3 metres in terms of distance.
Other effects introduce errors much greater than this, and accuracy based
on an uncorrected C/A signal is generally about 15 m.
• The military-only P(Y) signal sent by the same satellites is clocked ten
times as fast, so with similar techniques the receiver will be accurate to
about 30 cm.
 RTK DGPS
• RTK Dual frequency GPS receivers follow the same general concept, but
use the satellite's carrier as its signal, not the messages contained within. The
improvement possible using this signal is potentially very high if one
continues to assume a 1% accuracy in locking. For instance, the GPS coarse-
acquisition (C/A) code broadcast in the L1 signal changes phase at 1.023
MHz, but the L1 carrier itself is 1575.42 MHz, over a thousand times as
fast. This frequency corresponds to a wavelength of 19 cm for the L1 signal.
Thus a ±1% error in L1 carrier phase measurement corresponds to a
±1.9mm error in baseline estimation.
• The difficulty in making an RTK system is properly aligning the signals. The
navigation signals are deliberately encoded (PRN) in order to allow them to
be aligned easily, whereas every cycle of the carrier is similar to every other.
This makes it extremely difficult to know if you have properly aligned the
signals or if they are "off by one" and are thus introducing an error of 20
cm, or a larger multiple of 20 cm. This integer ambiguity problem can be
addressed to some degree with sophisticated statistical methods that
compare the measurements from the C/A signals and by comparing the
resulting ranges between multiple satellites. However, none of these
methods can reduce this error to zero.
• Like DGPS, RTK can be performed in real-time or in post processing.
 RTK Service Range
• The United States Federal Radionavigation Plan
and the IALA Recommendation on the
Performance and Monitoring of DGNSS
Services in the Band 283.5–325 kHz cite the
United States Department of Transportation's
1993 estimated error growth of 0.67 m per 100
km from the broadcast site, but measurements
of accuracy across the Atlantic, in Portugal
suggest a degradation of just 0.22 m per 100
km.
RTK DGPS
 GPS Receiver Types
• There are 4 common levels of GPS accuracy
Single Frequency

– ‘Single-ended’ (5-8m) – consumer & autonomous

• ~$100-$300
– Sub-meter (better than 1m) – WAAS / OmniSTAR
• ~$2000-$5000
– Decimeter (<15cm) - OmniSTAR HP or XP Service
Dual Frequency

• ~$5000-$15000 (+Subscription ~$1500/year)

– Centimeter (inch) – RTK correction
• ~$20,000+
 Hemisphere COAST
• Hemisphere sub meter DGPS system using
WAAS in North America and OmniSTAR
elsewhere.
• COAST eliminates the need to post process GPS
data and allows real-time spatial data collection.
Hemisphere COAST

• Conventional GPS run (blue

dots, black line) layered with
separate run using Hemisphere
GPS with COAST (red circles,
red line).
• Note extreme variance in horizontal
position of readings, and appearance
of sporadic intervals in conventional
readings caused by GPS variance.
Mapping and Datums

Hunter McDonnell Pipeline Services Inc. 2011

 Geographic Coordinate System
• A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate
system that enables every location on the Earth
to be specified by a set of numbers. The
coordinates are often chosen such that one of
the numbers represent vertical position, and two
or three of the numbers represent horizontal
position.
• A common choice of coordinates is latitude,
longitude and elevation.
 Geographic Coordinate System
The geographic latitude (abbreviation: Lat., φ, or phi) of a point
on the Earth's surface is the angle between the equatorial plane
and a line that passes through that point and is normal to the
surface of a reference ellipsoid which approximates the shape
of the Earth. This line passes a few kilometers away from the
center of the Earth except at the poles and the equator where it
passes through Earth's center. Lines joining points of the same
latitude trace circles on the surface of the Earth called parallels,
as they are parallel to the equator and to each other.
– The north pole is 90° N;
– the south pole is 90° S.
– The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the
fundamental plane of all geographic coordinate systems.
– The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern
Hemispheres.
 Geographic Coordinate System
• The Longitude (abbreviation: Long., λ, or lambda) of a point
on the Earth's surface is the angle east or west from a
reference meridian to another meridian that passes through
that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses (often
improperly called great circles), which converge at the north
and south poles.
• A line passing near the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (near
London in the UK) has been chosen as the international
zero-longitude reference line, the Prime Meridian. Places to
the east are in the eastern hemisphere, and places to the west
are in the western hemisphere. The antipodal meridian of
Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E. The zero/zero point is
located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 Km south of Tema,
Ghana.
 Geodetic Systems or Datums
• Geodetic systems or geodetic datums are used in
geodesy, navigation, surveying by cartographers and
satellite navigation systems to translate positions
indicated on their products to their real position on
earth.
 Geodetic Systems
• Geodetic systems are needed
because the earth is not a perfect
sphere. Neither is the earth an
ellipsoid.
• The surface of the Earth is closer to an ellipsoid than
to a sphere, as its equatorial diameter is larger than its
north-south diameter.
• The greatest distance between an ellipsoid normal and
the center of the Earth is 21.9 km at a latitude of 45°
The USGS uses a spherical harmonic expansion to approximate
the earth's surface. It has about one hundred thousand terms.
 Shape of the Earth
• The Earth is not a sphere, but an irregular shape
approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. Earth has an
equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator
about 0.3% larger than the radius measured through
the poles. The shorter axis approximately coincides
with axis of rotation.
• Map-makers choose the true ellipsoid that best fits
their need for the area they are mapping. They then
choose the most appropriate mapping of the
spherical coordinate system onto that ellipsoid.
 Shape of the Earth
• Though early navigators thought of the sea as a flat
surface that could be used as a vertical datum, this is
far from reality.
• The Earth can be thought to have a series of layers
of equal potential energy within its gravitational
field. Height is a measurement at right angles to this
surface, and although gravity pulls mainly toward the
centre of Earth, the geocentre, there are local
variations.
• The shape of these layers is irregular but essentially
ellipsoidal. The reference height we have chosen is
the one closest to the average height of the world's
oceans. This is called the geoid.
 Geodetic Height
• To completely specify a location of a topographical
feature on, in, or above the Earth, one has to also
specify the vertical distance from the centre of the
Earth, or from the surface of the Earth.
• Because of the ambiguity of "surface" and "vertical", it
is more commonly expressed relative to a precisely
defined vertical datum which holds fixed to some
known point. Each country has defined its own datum.
• For example, in Canada, Mexico and the United States,
the point is near Rimouski, Quebec, Canada.
• The distance to Earth's centre can be used both for
very deep positions and for positions in space.
 Geodetic Terms
• Geodesy: also named geodetics, a branch of earth sciences, is the scientific
discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth,
including its gravitational field, in a three-dimensional time-varying space.
• Geoid: The equipotential surface which would coincide exactly with the
mean ocean surface of the Earth, if the oceans were in equilibrium, at rest
(relative to the rotating Earth), and extended through the continents (such as
with very narrow canals).
• Ellipsoid: In geodesy, a reference ellipsoid is a mathematically-defined
surface that approximates the geoid, the truer figure of the Earth, or other
planetary body. Because of their relative simplicity, reference ellipsoids are
used as a preferred surface on which geodetic network computations are
performed and point coordinates such as latitude, longitude, and elevation
are defined.
• Spheroid: A spheroid, or ellipsoid of revolution is a quadric surface
obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other
words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters.
– If the ellipse is rotated about its minor axis, the result is an oblate (flattened)
spheroid.
 What is the geoid?
The geoid surface is irregular, unlike the reference ellipsoid
which is a mathematical idealized representation of the physical
Earth, but considerably smoother than Earth's physical surface.
Although the physical Earth has excursions of +8,000 m (Mount
Everest) and −11,000 m (Mariana Trench), the geoid's total
variation is less than 200 m (−106 to +85 m) compared to a
perfect mathematical ellipsoid.Surveyors using GPS to determine
elevations above mean sea level (H) use the geoid to convert
from ellipsoidal GPS heights (h). The difference between the
ellipsoid and the geoid is the geoidal height (N).
– H=h-N
– H = Mean sea level elevation
– h = Ellipsoidal height
– N = Geoidal height
 The Geoid VS the Ellipsoid

1. Ocean 2. Ellipsoid 3. Local plumb

4. Continent 5. Geoid
 The Changing Shape of the Earth
• The Earth is not static as points move relative to each
other due to continental plate motion, subsidence, and
diurnal movement caused by the Moon and the tides.
The daily movement can be as much as a metre.
• Continental movement can be up to 10 cm a year, or
10 m in a century. A weather system high-pressure area
can cause a sinking of 5 mm. Scandinavia is rising by 1
cm a year as a result of the melting of the ice sheets of
the last ice age, but neighbouring Scotland is rising by
only 0.2 cm. These changes are insignificant if a local
datum is used, but are significant if the global GPS
datum is used.
 Geotechnical Drift and Faults
• The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast
of Chile on February 27, 2010, at 03:34 local time
(06:34 UTC), rating a magnitude of 8.8 on the
moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking
lasting for about three minutes.
• It ranks as the sixth largest earthquake ever to
be recorded by a seismograph. It was felt
strongly in six Chilean regions, that together make
up about 80 percent of the country's population.
 2010 Chile Earthquake
The segment of the fault zone which ruptured in this
earthquake was estimated to be over 700 km (430 mi)
long with a displacement of almost 10 meters. It lay
immediately north of the 1,000 km (620 mi) segment
which ruptured in the great Valdivia earthquake of
1960 (measured 9.5; the strongest earthquake ever
measured).
 2010 Chile Earthquake
• Preliminary measurements show that the entire South
American Plate moved abruptly westward during the
quake. A research collaborative of Ohio State and other
institutions have found, using GPS, that the
earthquake shifted Santiago 11 inches (28 cm) to
the west-southwest and moved Concepción at least 10
feet (at least 3 meters) to the west.
• The earthquake also shifted other parts of South
America from the Falkland Islands to Fortaleza, Brazil.
For example, it moved Argentina’s capital of Buenos
Aires about one inch (2.5 cm) to the west.
• Several cities south of Cobquecura were also
raised, by up to 3 meters!
 The Spheroid Effect
• The same position on a spheroid has a different angle for
latitude depending on whether the angle is measured from
the normal (angle α) or around the center (angle β). Note
that the "flatness" of the spheroid (orange in the image) is
greater than that of the Earth; as a result, the
corresponding difference between the "geodetic" and
"geocentric" latitudes is also exaggerated.
The difference between angles of latitude for a position
on an oblate spheroid (such as the Earth) when using the
geocentric (angle β) and geodetic (angle α) coordinate
systems. The segment, IP, bisects the angle GPF, where
points G and F are the foci of the elliptical cross-section
of the spheroid, and is therefore normal to the ellipse at
point P.
 Coordinate Systems
The Earth-centered Earth-
fixed (ECEF or ECF) or
conventional terrestrial
coordinate system rotates with
the Earth and has its origin at
the centre of the Earth. The X
axis passes through the equator
at the prime meridian. The Z
axis passes through the north
pole but it does not exactly
coincide with the instantaneous
Earth rotational axis. The Y axis
can be determined by the right-
hand rule to be passing through
the equator at 90o longitude.
 Geodetic Datums
• It is easy to calculate the tangent to the surface at points on an
ellipsoid representing the earth's surface. Drawing one of them on a
graph at about latitude 45 degrees shows them dipping below the
ellipsoid to the south and rising above to the north. But if this is the
case every where, we are led to a contradiction. Starting from the
equator, the true surface would be above the ellipsoid, but starting
from the north pole, the true surface would be below the ellipsoid.
• Examples of map datums are:
– WGS 84, 72, 64 and 60 of the World Geodetic System
– NAD83, the North American Datum which is very similar to WGS84
– NAD27, the older North American Datum, of which NAD83 was
basically a readjustment
– OSGB36 of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
– ED50, the European Datum
 Geodetic Datums
• The difference in co-ordinates between data is commonly referred to as
datum shift. The datum shift between two particular datums can vary from
one place to another within one country or region, and can be anything from
zero to hundreds of metres (or several kilometres for some remote islands).
• The North Pole, South Pole and Equator may be assumed to be in different
positions on different datums, so True North may be different. Different
datums use different estimates for the precise shape and size of the Earth
(reference ellipsoids).
• The difference between WGS84 and OSGB36, for example, is up to 140
metres (450 feet), which for some navigational purposes is an insignificant
error. For other applications, such as surveying, or staking a dig site location
for an ILI dig, 140 metres is an unacceptably large error.
• Because the Earth is not a perfect ellipsoid, localised datums can give a more
accurate representation of the area of coverage than the global WGS 84
datum. NAD83 (North American Datum 1983), for example, is a better
approximation to the geoid covering Canada than the global WGS 84
ellipsoid. However, as the benefits of a global system outweigh the greater
accuracy, the global WGS 84 datum is becoming increasingly adopted.
 Why use global Datums?
A unified geodetic system for the whole world became
essential in the 1950s for several reasons:
– International space science and the beginning of
astronautics.
– The lack of inter-continental geodetic information.
– The inability of the large geodetic systems, such as
European Datum (ED50), North American Datum (NAD),
and Tokyo Datum (TD), to provide a worldwide geo-data
basis
– Need for global maps for navigation, aviation, and
geography.
– Western Cold War preparedness necessitated a standardised,
NATO-wide geospatial reference system, in accordance
with the NATO Standardisation Agreement
The World Geodetic System (WGS) Datum
In the late 1950s, the United States Department of
Defense, together with scientists of other institutions and
countries, began to develop the needed world system to
which geodetic datums could be referred and
compatibility established between the coordinates of
widely separated sites of interest. Efforts of the U.S.
Army, Navy and Air Force were combined leading to the
DoD World Geodetic System 1960 (WGS 60).
The term datum as used here refers to a smooth surface
somewhat arbitrarily defined as zero elevation, consistent
with a set of surveyor's measures of distances between
various stations, and differences in elevation, all reduced
to a grid of latitudes, longitudes, and elevations.
The World Geodetic System (WGS) Datum
Heritage surveying methods found elevation differences
from a local horizontal determined by the spirit level,
plumb line, or an equivalent device that depends on the
local gravity field. As a result, the elevations in the
legacy datums are referenced to the geoid, a surface
that is not readily found using satellite geodesy.

The latter observational method is more suitable for

global mapping. Therefore, a motivation, and a
substantial problem in the WGS and similar work is to
patch together datums that were not only made
separately, for different regions, but to re-reference the
elevations to an ellipsoid model rather than to the
geoid.
 WGS 84
• The World Geodetic System is a standard for use in
cartography, geodesy, and navigation. It comprises a
standard coordinate frame for the Earth, a standard
spheroidal reference surface (the datum or reference
ellipsoid) for raw altitude data, and a gravitational
equipotential surface (the geoid) that defines the
nominal sea level.
• The latest revision is WGS 84 (dating from 1984 and
last revised in 2004). Earlier schemes included WGS
72, WGS 66, and WGS 60.
• WGS 84 is the reference coordinate system used
by the Global Positioning System.
 WGS 84 Facts
• The coordinate origin of WGS 84 is meant to be located at the Earth's center
of mass; the error is believed to be less than 2 cm.
• In WGS 84, the meridian of zero longitude is the IERS Reference Meridian.
It lies 5.31 arc seconds east of the Greenwich Prime Meridian, which
corresponds to 102.5 metres (336.3 feet) at the latitude of the Royal
Observatory.
• As of the latest revision, the WGS 84 datum surface is defined as an oblate
spheroid (ellipsoid), with major (transverse) radius a = 6,378,137 m at the
equator and flattening f = 1/298.257223563. The polar semi-minor
(conjugate) radius b can be derived by b = a (1 - f) ≈ 6356752.3142 m. This
is a flattening of 21.384 685 755 km, or ≈ 0.335% in relative terms.
• Presently WGS 84 uses the 1996 Earth Gravitational Model (EGM96) geoid,
revised in 2004. This geoid defines the nominal sea level surface by means of
a spherical harmonics series of degree 360 (which provides about 100 km
horizontal resolution). The deviations of the EGM96 geoid from the WGS
84 reference ellipsoid range from about -105 m to about +85 m. EGM96
differs from the original WGS 84 geoid, referred to as EGM84.
 Expressing latitude and longitude as linear units
• On the WGS84 spheroid at sea level at the equator, one latitudinal
second measures 30.715 metres, one latitudinal minute
is 1843 metres and one latitudinal degree is 110.6 kilometres.
• The circles of longitude, meridians, meet at the geographical poles,
with the west-east width of a second naturally decreasing as latitude
increases.
– On the equator at sea level, one longitudinal second measures 30.92 metres,
a longitudinal minute is 1855 metres and a longitudinal degree
is 111.3 kilometres.
– At 30° a longitudinal second is 26.76 metres, at Greenwich (51° 28' 38"
N) 19.22 metres, and at 60° it is 15.42 metres.
• On the WGS84 spheroid, the length in meters of a degree of
latitude at latitude φ (that is, the distance along a north-south line
from latitude (φ - 0.5) degrees to (φ + 0.5) degrees) is about:
111132.954 - 559.822(cos 2φ) + 1.175(cos 4φ)
• The width of one longitudinal degree at latitude can be calculated
by this formula (to get the width per minute and second, divide by
60 and 3600, respectively)
 UTM
• The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) geographic
coordinate system is a grid-based method of specifying
locations on the surface of the Earth that is a practical
application of a 2-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.
It is a horizontal position representation, i.e. it is used to
identify locations on the earth independently of vertical
position, but differs from the traditional method of latitude
and longitude in several respects.
• The UTM system is not a single map projection. The system
instead employs a series of sixty zones, each of which is
based on a specifically defined secant transverse Mercator
projection.
 UTM
• Within each longitudinal zone the transverse mercator
projection is used to give co-ordinates (eastings and
northings) in meters. For the eastings, the origin is defined as
a point 500,000 meters west of the central meridian of each
longitudinal zone, giving an easting of 500,000 meters at the
central meridian. For the northings in the northern
hemisphere, the origin is defined as the equator. For the
northings in the southern hemisphere, the origin is defined as
a point 10,000,000 meters south of the equator.

• The co-ordinates thus derived define a location within a UTM

projection zone either north or south of the equator, but
because the same co-ordinate system is repeated for each
zone and hemisphere, it is necessary to additionally state the
UTM longitudinal zone and either the hemisphere or
latitudinal zone to define the location uniquely world-wide.
 UTM
The longitude and latitude zones in the Universal Transverse
Mercator system:
• Longitude zones are six degrees wide. They are numbered
from 01 at 180° west, increasing towards the east until 60 at 180°
east.
• Latitude zones are 8° high. They are lettered from C to X,
omitting the letters "I" and "O", beginning at 80° south. The
letters A, B, Y and Z are used in the polar regions by the Universal
Polar Stereographic grid system.
• A grid reference is read "right, up", as indicated by the arrows in
the following diagram. A reference is always written with the
longitude zone first. In the following diagram = "17T".
• Exceptions to the system are apparent. The west coast of Norway
is given a wider zone 32V, taking some space from the zone 31V
that covers open water. The zones around Svalbard are also
widened, effectively deleting some longitude zones at this latitude.
Finally, the entire latitude zone "X" is extended an extra 4°,
topping off at 84° north.
UTM
 UTM Issues
Zone break overs, especially those further from the
equator, present problems.
• Some users alter the UTM projection to use larger
or smaller zones to better accommodate their local
region (the 3TM and 10TM datums are two
common variations).
• Zone Extension – the zone is simply extended past
it’s boundary to accommodate the entire region
being mapped (common for pipelines).
 UTM
• The conversion from UTM to and from WGS
Latitude and longitude is not straight forward. Due
to the math involved and rounding there is a loss
of precision with each conversion.
• UTM coordinate triangulation assumes no
projection, so curvature of the earth’s surface is
ignored on calculations over long distances; a
correction factor is therefore required.
Inertial Navigation
Systems

Hunter McDonnell Pipeline Services Inc. 2011

 Inertial Navigation System (INS)
• An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation aid
that uses a computer, motion sensors (accelerometers)
and rotation sensors (gyroscopes) to continuously
calculate via dead reckoning the position, orientation,
and velocity (direction and speed of movement) of a
moving object without the need for external references.
It is used on vehicles such as ships, aircraft, submarines,
guided missiles, spacecraft and pipeline pigs.
• Other terms used to refer to inertial navigation systems
or closely related devices include inertial guidance
system, inertial reference platform, inertial instrument,
inertial measurement unit (IMU) and many other
variations.
 Accelerometers & Gyroscopes
• An inertial navigation system is
built around inertial instruments
– gyroscopes & accelerometers,
both of which measure
deviations from freely-falling
motion:
• Accelerometers measure the
deviation from free-fall.
• gyroscopes measure the
deviation from non-rotation.
 Modern Components for INS
• A fibre optic gyroscope (FOG) senses changes in orientation, thus
performing the function of a mechanical gyroscope. However its
principle of operation is instead based on the interference of light
which has passed through a coil of optical fibre which can be as
long as 5 km.
• Two beams from a laser are injected into the same fibre but in
opposite directions. Due to the Sagnac effect, the beam travelling
against the rotation experiences a slightly shorter path delay than
the other beam. The resulting differential phase shift is measured
through interferometry, thus translating one component of the
angular velocity into a shift of the interference pattern which is
measured photometrically.
 Modern Components for INS
• Microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS)
• MEMS accelerometer: Polysilicon
springs suspend the MEMS structure
above the substrate such that the
body of the sensor (also known as
the proof mass) can move in the X
and Y axes. Acceleration causes
deflection of the proof mass from its
centre position.
 INS
• The INS is initially provided with its position and velocity from another
source (a human operator, a GPS satellite receiver, etc.), and thereafter
computes its own updated position and velocity by integrating information
received from the motion sensors. The advantage of an INS is that it
requires no external references in order to determine its position,
orientation, or velocity once it has been initialized.
• An INS can detect a change in its geographic position (a move east or north,
for example), a change in its velocity (speed and direction of movement),
and a change in its orientation (rotation about an axis). It does this by
measuring the linear and angular accelerations applied to the system. Since it
requires no external reference (after initialization), it is immune to jamming
and deception.
 INS Drift
• All inertial navigation systems suffer from integration drift:
small errors in the measurement of acceleration and angular
velocity are integrated into progressively larger errors in
velocity, which are compounded into still greater errors in
position. Since the new position is calculated from the
previous calculated position and the measured acceleration and
angular velocity, these errors are cumulative and increase at a
rate roughly proportional to the time since the initial position
was input. Therefore the position must be periodically
corrected by input from some other type of navigation system.
• The inaccuracy of a good-quality navigational system is
normally less than 0.6 nautical miles per hour in position
and on the order of tenths of a degree per hour in
orientation.
 INS Error
• Accordingly, inertial navigation is usually used to
supplement other navigation systems, providing a
higher degree of accuracy or more coverage time
than is possible with the use of any single system.
• One of the most common alternative sensors is a
satellite navigation radio, such as GPS. By properly
combining the information from an INS and the
GPS system (GPS/INS), the errors in position and
velocity are stable.
• Furthermore, INS can be used as a short-term
fallback while GPS signals are unavailable, for
example when a vehicle passes through a tunnel.
 Pipeline INS or IMU
• Pipeline pigs can be equipped with an INS, often called
an Inertial Mapping Unit (IMU).
• The INS is calibrated to surface geodetic coordinates
obtained with GPS, where the elevation must be
corrected from ground surface to the pipe via a depth
of cover measurement.
• Above ground markers (AGMs) are then deployed
along the pipe route at 1 to 2 mile intervals to
recalibrate the INS.
• The pig will also often be equipped with odometer
wheels which can supplement the INS for distance and
velocity.
 The Pipeline PIG INS Errors
• The INS itself: 0.6 nautical miles per hour in position
and on the order of tenths of a degree per hour where
correlations are made less than once / hr.
• The GPS coordinate itself; Mapping Grade (sub
meter horizontal & ~2m elevation) VS RTK?
• AGM clock error and drift from ILI tool, and
AGM placement.
• Depth of cover correction to pipe; electromagnetic
locators on bends are not accurate.
Distortion of Electromagnetic Field
• Left: undistorted field on straight pipe.
• Below: bend distortion illustrated
 Distortion of Electromagnetic Field
Locator position
and orientation
for accurate
readings
Distortion of Electromagnetic Field
 Distortion of Electromagnetic Field
Interference
 Identifying INS data errors
• Layering INS with ground based GPS surveys
over the line to QC the INS data; can identify
where AGM or GPS errors have affected the INS.
• In the following example, a BJ Geopig (INS/IMU
+ Caliper ILI) was run through a section of 36”
natural gas transmission pipeline. The
geotechnical engineers were concerned about
slope stability at one river crossing where the
pipeline had been bored approximately 1.2 Km.
• The following sketches illustrate the correlation of
the ground survey and the ILI INS data.
Topographical Map with AGM sites
(sub m GPS)
GIS Screen Shot
Photograph of pipeline Xing
VRML Rendering from top of south bank
(Grey line is HM GPS, blue line is BJ Geopig)
VRML Rendering from top of south bank
(Grey line is HM GPS Line, blue line is BJ Geopig)
VRML Rendering from top of north bank
(Gray line is HM GPS Line, blue line is BJ Geopig)
PLAN Overview with Geopig welds in
Red, HM survey points in Blue.
 Use of GIS Data for Pipelines
• Very beneficial, but requires a great amount of
attention to collect, QC, manage and utilize the data
to ensure reliable results.
• Data standards are critical; know your datums and
formats!
• Procedures need to be employed.
 Using the GIS data
• Consider staking out anomalies for excavation, using
INS data from ILI, and using mapping grade GPS to
stake the location.
• The ILI data is in UTM, and the line section spans a
UTM zone breakover.
• The surveyor’s GPS is lat/long WGS 84.

Two measurements should always be used to confirm the location;

• GPS coordinate and confirmation of cross track error.
• GPS distance VS ILI odo to U/S and D/S AGMs; long
track error.